Two illegal scrapyards, situated in the outside development zone of Wardija and Siggiewi were completely cleared and re-instated to their original state after the Planning Authority’s enforcement arm carried out a direct action operation at both sites.
In the pristine area of Wardija, in an area known as Ras il-Wied, the Authority cleared away all the material which over the years had turned 5 tumoli of fields into an illegal scapyard.
Over the past months, the Authority had intervened on two seperate occassions at this site, giving the site occupier the chance to remove the illegally deposited material, in phases due to the extent of the site. In these past weeks the Authority’s patience ran out, resulting in enforcement action whereby the entire site was re-instated at the expense of the contravenor.
Officers from the enforcement directorate of the Planning Authority, also reinstated a site situated in Triq Nikola Baldacchino, limits of Siġġiewi, which site was turned into a makeshift scrapyard over the years. The Authority carried out this operation after the contravenor failed to honour the agreement he had reached with the Authority following a series of warning and two previous direct action operations. The material removed from the site, which covers an area of over 3,700m2, consisted mainly of abandoned vehicles and other related scrap.
The Authority also closed off two enforcement cases within a large site, which over the years was illegally turned and used as a yard for the parking of heavy vehicles and the storage of machinery. The site, which is adjacent to a residential area, was not only an injury to amenity but creating an inconvenience to the neighbourhood. The land owners fully co-operated with the officers of the Planning Authority and completely cleared out the site. The Authority sealed off the boundaries to ensure that the site is not reused for the same purpose again in the future.