An appeal by the Attorney General against a planning permit for a winery extension proposed by former University rector Juanito Camilleri has been rejected.

The appeal, based on a procedural error by the Planning Authority, was turned down by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal yesterday, confirming the original permit.

Prof. Camilleri was granted permission in June 2016 to increase the size of his winery – part of the 40,000-square-metre Ta’ Betta Estates in the limits of Siġġiewi – from 250 to 860 square metres.

The case officer recommended the application for refusal as the winery already exceeded the maximum size of 200 square metres permitted by the rural policy, even before the extension.

The Agriculture Advisory Committee considered the development a “genuine agricultural need”.

In its appeal, the Attorney General’s office highlighted a breach of procedure when the Planning Commission went against the recommendation.

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The PA procedure stipulated that, in such cases, the hearing should be put off while the planning directorate drew up a new set of conditions. But in Prof. Camilleri’s case, the matter was put to a vote at the first hearing.

The appeal argued that the second hearing a few weeks later was thereby reduced to a formality whereby the decision was already a fait accompli.

Due to the apparent violation of procedure, the planning directorate requested that the permit be revoked but the PA board had decided against this, concluding that the error did not have a “material bearing” on the case.

Juanito Camilleri had argued that denying him the permit would be 'a travesty of justice.'

Prof. Camilleri had told the PA board hearing that revoking the permit would have been a “travesty of justice” and his lawyers argued that the regulator had led the applicant on by issuing a permit it knew was likely to be revoked shortly after.

Another appeal by the Attorney General on the same case, contesting the PA board decision not to revoke the permit, was declared null in December 2016 after the appeals tribunal ruled that the law did not grant the government a right of appeal in cases related to revocation of permits.

The appeals were the first to be presented by a public authority against a PA decision, in terms of powers granted in the 2015 planning law reform.