The db group said this morning it was reactivating its application for the development of the City Centre on the former ITS site in Pembroke.

In a statement, the group said that in a recent court case the issuing of a Planning Authority permit, the court ruled against the authority due to a conflict of interest of one of the adjudicating board members.

The board member, Matthew Pace, is a franchise owner of Remax Alliance Swieqi, which shared a database and website with Remax Malta. The agency had been selling apartments that were part of the db project at a time when no planning permit had yet been granted.

In a statement today, db Group said that as a consequence of this decision the permit was revoked.

The revocation was based exclusively on one, single point: that the court deemed that a member of the board had a conflict of interest. Clearly, the group said, “this has absolutely nothing to do with the db Group and even less with the project itself.

The court, the group added, completely steered clear of the merits of the permit itself and at no point did it express itself against the project, how it was issued or about the db group itself.

In view of this, the db Group “is currently reactivating the application for a full permit, with some alterations and rescaling which have been in gestation since the original permit was issued last September.”

From the launching of the project, the db Group said it has “rigorously followed all the applicable laws and procedures of every institution involved. We shall continue to do so with rectitude, openness and determination. It is with this same approach that we shall ensure that our Group enjoys its full rights at law, the same ones enjoyed by others.”