The Malta Environment and Planning Authority yesterday executed an enforcement notice to demolish a farmhouse in Wardija after the courts gave the green light for them to do so.

In a statement, Mepa said the site on which the farmhouse stood was within an outside development zone (ODZ) and had three separate planning applications refused by the Development and Control Commission and Planning Appeals Board.

The development, which was in its final stage of completion, was served with an enforcement notice that obliged the owner to return the site to its original state within a 16-day period.

It turns out that the owner had excavated soil and rubble from one side of the development and deposited it on the other side. Mepa in turn issued a stop and enforce notice, yet the owner ignored it and carried on developing the site. In the meantime, the direct action team called the owner and told him to expect a team on the doorstep within weeks. He then filed for a prohibitory injunction in court which was eventually turned down by Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia. However, in the meantime, he had submitted an application to Mepa in a last-ditch bid to regularise his position – but it failed.

In its statement, Mepa said that such legal manoeuvring continue to impede it when trying to take action against illegal development. It said that in most cases, these illegal developments manage to remain where they are until years of legal proceedings are concluded. The authority said it eagerly awaits parliament’s endorsement to amendments to the Development Planning Act which will bring to an end “these tiresome practices”.

Mepa said the recommended enforcement changes that had been approved by the cabinet towards the end of the last legislature will empower the authority to carry out direct action operations without the need to await the outcome of legal procedures or appeals decisions.

The site demolished yesterday was for a seven-room farmhouse on a 50 by 45 foot footprint. The work on it started in January this year and the demolition job will be completed by this weekend at the expense of the developer.