It all began when the Mepa board last April approved a permit allowing the addition of a second floor to a warehouse in Tal-Handaq.
The application was put in by the landlord, Bondsons Ltd, on behalf of a company that leased the warehouse BM Holdings, which in turn had sub-leased part of the warehouse to the GO subsidiary BMIT.
GO objected to the permit because it was issued, GO claimed, on incomplete information. This claim triggered what is known as Article 77, a process which modifies or even annuls an already issued permit.
At the Mepa board meeting, BMIT and GO turned up with the heaviest artillery in their ranks – lawyer, COO, architects, etc.
On the part of the applicant appeared former Mepa CEO Ian Stafrace who immediately admitted a mistake had been made because BMIT had not been made aware of the application. The application did say that BMHI had sold BMIT to GO but did not spell out the implications.
The warehouse is in an Area of Containment and the rules say that any extension will be approved only if there is a need for expansion. In this case, since BMIT did not even know an application had been lodged, and it did not want to expand, it objected that the permit was based on false information.
But later on in the sitting, BMIT revealed the real reason for its objection. Had the permit for a second storey been approved, it would have had to move its extensive telecommunications apparata on the roof and this could imperil its vital 24/7 service to clients, including many online gaming companies who have already expressed their alarm at this possibility.
Christian Sammut, BMIT CEO, said BMIT had no plan to add another storey to its operations. Its only long-term plan would be to relocate to SmartCity Malta.
Once BMIT had no intention of increasing the warehouse by an additional storey, the objectors said, the permit must be withdrawn also considering that the ground floor is now a Vileda store and hardly interested in adding a new storey.
At the end, the board agreed to withdraw the permit (with two objections) so that the application can be re-published and begin again its processing by Mepa at which stage GO or anyone else can raise their objections in the normal way.