The Planning Authority spent more than €60,000 to hire the services of a renowned international marketing firm to publicise the long-awaited Paceville master plan, the Times of Malta has learnt.

The proposed master plan was scrapped just weeks after it had been unveiled.

Asked to explain why there was the need for such a high-profile marketing campaign for a draft master plan, a spokesman for the Planning Authority replied it was necessary, “as the project was intended to turn Paceville into a top destination”.

Incidentally, although the master plan was launched in September 2016, the formal direct order to UK marketing giant M&C Saatchi was issued in April 2017, four months after the master plan had already been scrapped.

 The Planning Authority attributed this to bureaucracy.

“M&C Saatchi were engaged at the launch of the Paceville master plan,” a spokesman said, adding that, however, the direct order proper “was published at a later stage because of bureaucratic procedures in the procurements process procedure”.

Sources close to the Finance Ministry said the fact that the direct order was issued when the work by the marketing firm had already been completed was highly unethical and might not have been in line with set procedures.

The Paceville master plan immediately raised eyebrows, mostly among residents and entrepreneurs in the area.

They accused the planning regulator and Mott MacDonald, the international firm chosen to draw up the plan, of amateurism and conflicts of interest.

It later resulted that the same consultants had been involved in the drawing up of various private projects in the same area, including the controversial Mercury House.

Three months after its launch, the master plan went back to the drawing board, with the PA conceding that the whole exercise had to restart from scratch.

It said that a revised version would be published by May, but this has not happened.

The Times of Malta asked the planning watchdog last week if the new master plan had been finalised and when it would be published. However, no replies have been forthcoming.