Four months after the Gozitan court ruled that MEPA couldn’t be stopped from removing the illegally built yard, the developer, Said Construction Ltd, continues to use the site for storing its machinery. Said Construction Ltd is owned by Peter Paul and Josef Said, the brothers of lawyer Chris Said, the locality’s mayor and Nationalist Party candidate in the forthcoming general election.
And one does not have to dig deep to notice that this site continues to be misused. On 7 July, the Nadur mayor hosted an environmental activity for residents at the public garden surrounding the tower, next to his brothers’ illegal developments. None of those present could have missed the two large trailers parked at the cliff’s edge, on the large stretch of land where the developers dumped construction debris to develop their storage yard.
The photo is featured in the local council’s website, with the construction company’s trucks in full view
Even the council’s photographers could not avoid omitting the eyesore from their viewfinder, and a picture showing the trailers ended up posted on Nadur’s official website.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) has been sending warnings to Said Construction Ltd to remove their illegal structures since 2005. Earlier this year, when the company got a whiff of MEPA’s intention to order its officials to take direct action, the Said brothers called on the court to stop it from clearing away their illegal structures. But in response to the Saids’ plea, the court ruled that the illegal developers had “no right” to stop MEPA.
In a bid to gain time, the illegal developers have even filed an application to “sanction deposit and levelling of material and soil, rebuilding of rubble walls and planting of olives trees”. Yet, MEPA’s website states that “this application has been found to be invalid, or application fees have not been paid”. MEPA sources explained that construction waste dumped haphazardly couldn’t be sanctioned to be converted to an olive garden. Moreover, it seems that the application was termed “invalid” because the applicant may not be the rightful owner of this site.