Planning Authority chairman Johann Buttigieg knew that a firm hired as lead consultants for the Paceville master plan had provided advisory services to a developer with plans to build a high-rise there, a parliamentary committee heard this evening. 

UK-based Mott MacDonald had verbally informed Mr Buttigieg about their work on engineering reports for the construction of Mercury House in Paceville, with the PA chairman telling them to proceed with their master plan consultancy. 

Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri told Parliament's House Environmental and Development Planning Committee that the government had not been told about the firm's dual roles.

Nationalist Party MP Marthese Portelli said Mott MacDonald had worked on Mercury House reports before starting work on the Paceville master plan, but after it had submitted its proposal to the Planning Authority in April. Mercury House works stopped in May. 

Furthermore, it emerged that the original request for expressions of interest that had been distributed to several consultants was for an integrated transport plan - despite Mott McDonald being subsequently commissioned to work on a master plan. 

Dr Portelli said that this meant that Mott MacDonald had in effect been issued a direct order for the design of the plan.

Mott MacDonald representatives insisted that work for Mercury House had ceased by the time that work on the master plan had begun in earnest and that the two projects had been handled by different units within the firm. No information was shared by one unit with the other, representatives said. 

Having raised the issue with the Planning Authority, they saw no conflict of interest in working on the master plan, especially since site-specific plans had been developed by Broadway Malyan and not in-house at Mott MacDonald. The latter, representatives said, had only worked on the design of a transport plan for the area.

Mott MacDonald had come under fire in recent weeks for its failure to consult with residents before preparing the Paceville master plan. But speaking in Parliament this evening, company representatives argued that their brief was to prepare a preliminary framework for the area, and they had been informed that a public consultation and Social Impact Assessment would follow.