The room measured just eight sqm in 1978 but has grown to 19 sqm.

The Planning Authority sanctioned a tool room built outside the development zone in Dingli.

A permit for a 19-square-metre room in an area of high landscape value was issued in 1995. However, it was noted that the structure was actually six square metres larger than what was authorised. An application to sanction the discrepancy was refused in 2009, and an enforcement order was issued the following year.

Another application to sanction was filed last August, and the Environment Protection Directorate expressed concern noting that the site was adjacent to coastal cliffs, designated as a special area of conservation.

The Agricultural Advisory Committee did not recommend permission, as the room was “not considered genuinely essential to the needs of agriculture”.

The main target of the policy should be to aid local agriculture and not to promote construction

The applicant referred to the 2014 Rural Policy and Design Guidance, allowing the redevelopment of ODZ buildings that existed before 1978. He submitted a 1978 aerial photo of an eight-square-metre room within his agricultural holding and a recent image indicating the foundations of the structure still visible.

The planning watchdog agreed to transfer the eight-square-metre “entitlement” according to the 2014 policy to make up for the extra footprint of the tool room, on the condition that the illegal hard landscaping was removed.

An ODZ agriculture store at Ta’ Landrijiet in Rabat was also sanctioned. The applicant first requested that the 66-square-metre footprint be sanctioned, though a 1994 aerial photo shows a 44-square-metre structure. The applicant accepted removing all accretions added after 1994.

Although the remaining structures were built without a permit, they were sanctioned by virtue of the new policy permitting ODZ structures that were visible in pre-October 1994 aerial photos.

An application for the construction of an agricultural store on a Natura 2000 site in Rabat was turned down.

Objecting to the application, Din l-Art Ħelwa remarked that “applications of this nature are cumulatively committing large areas of ODZ land to storage and scattering the countryside with further development.

“The main target of the policy should be to aid local agriculture and not to promote construction within ODZ areas.”