A company refused a permit to transform its Wied Għomor quarry into a residential home for the elderly has cried foul after the Planning Authority granted another developer a permit for the building of a villa complex in the valley.

Wied Għomor Quarry Limited, operating the quarry in the vicinity of San Ġwann and Swieqi for the past 70 years, filed the judicial protest after the PA gave the green light to a re-zoning application which would pave the path for the construction of an 11-villa complex just 20 metres away from the site formerly earmarked for the residential home and adjacent public gardens.

Read: Developers go to court over Wied Għomor rejection

The quarrying company’s application for development had been turned down after 10 years of negotiations and in spite of a recommendation for approval.

This “illegal and most strange” decision by the authority acquired a new dimension when last month, on the very eve of a hearing before the PA, the company got to know that a re-zoning application was to be discussed.

The company had written to the PA asking for a re-scheduling of the meeting since its lawyer would be unable to attend, but the meeting went ahead nonetheless and the application for the villa project was approved.

It was yet unclear whether the portion of land granted to the developer under title of encroachment was also to form part of the proposed complex, the protesting party pointed out.

The company was suffering "enormous damages" on account of the fact that the authority was applying "two weights and two measures, deciding whether to grant or refuse permits according to the identity of the applicant or developer".

Read: Will Wied Għomor be gobbled up by development?

Worse still, after disallowing the permit for the proposed elderly people’s home, the PA was trying to stop the current quarrying activity by the company "and this certainly to favour the prices of those who have been given the blessing to build villas in what is technically ODZ land full of carob trees".

Such actions by the PA were "totally irregular" and gave rise to "serious doubts" as to the transparency of the process and whether there was "some hidden hand behind said development".

The protesting company formally requested the authority to regularise its position, failing which it would be held liable in damages.

Lawyer Edward Gatt signed the judicial protest.

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