A sorry state of affairs was exposed on Friday when the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s Appeals Board heard that an illegal scrapyard had been given a trading licence despite the fact that it had no permission to exist in the first place.

The scrapyard in Wied Zembaq, Birzebbuga is located within 300 metres of the prehistoric sites of Borg in-Nadur and Ghar Dalam. It also lies within a designated Rural Conservation Area, an Area of Ecological Value and is a Site of Scientific Importance.

The whole of Wied Zembaq and its environs are also archaeologically sensitive and have been designated as a Heritage Park by the Marsaxlokk Bay Local Plan.

Although MEPA has been issuing enforcement orders against the unsanctioned scrapyard since 1993, the enforcement process has been plagued by appeal after appeal on the part of the abusive scrapyard’s owner, a certain Salvu Cutajar, and his legal representation Raphael Fenech Adami.

At the latest appeal hearing on Friday, an official from the Trade Licences Department was called to present the scrapyard’s trade licence, which had been issued in 2004 and which is still current.

The incident underscored an inexplicable shortcoming on the part of the department, which was shown to have issued a trading licence without having carried out any background checks to ascertain if the concern in question, of obvious environmental sensitivity, had been permitted in the first place.

But when questioned by MEPA’s lawyer, Anthony De Gaetano, about how the trade licence had been approved and whether just checks and balances had been applied, the official had no answer as he had not been involved in the issuing process and was in possession of no background information whatsoever.

Dr Fenech Adami offered to present contracts the government had awarded to the scrapyard dating back 60 years. However, according to MEPA aerial photographs the scrapyard has not even been in existence for 30.

The fact could also easily be corroborated by residents of the area, who have lived in the vicinity of the site for over 30 years and well before the scrapyard began to rear its ugly head.

Moreover, Dr De Gaetano also quoted a legal precedent in which a similarly illegal scrapyard had been ordered to shut down although it had been operating for over 60 years.

The fact that the scrapyard owner is attempting to legitimise his operations by claiming to have had government contracts, the scrapyard is also said to have been awarded contracts more recently by the Malta Transport Authority and Malta Shipyards, adds to the transgression on the part of the licensing authority.

In a statement issued this week, MEPA confirmed that over the past months it has been working with Malta Industrial Parks Ltd and the scrapyard’s owner with a view to relocating the abusive scrapyard. The incentive for the owner to relocate, however, is doubtful since a new site would undoubtedly require the payment of rent.

MEPA also insisted that over the past years it has consistently refused permission for the development, and that it has issued two enforcement notices against the illegality. It also stressed that it fully agrees the illegal scrapyard is an inconvenience to neighbouring residents and the area’s natural heritage but that it “cannot take direct action since the case is sub judice”.

It added, “The Authority has the obligation and duty to respect the rights of all citizens to fully make use of the legal institutions that allow them to present their case.”

It is this very obligation to the legal process that has time and time again exasperated MEPA and its efforts to crack down on abusive developments, with developers playing the system for years on end while continuing to enjoy their illegalities.

Such is the case with the Wied Zembaq scrapyard, which has been festering in MEPA’s appeals structure for the last 14 years.

The first enforcement notice from MEPA had been filed in 1993, and accused the site’s owner of changing the land into a scrapyard and building a garage without a permit.

Following an appeal, MEPA stood its ground and judged the operations “represent unacceptable urban development in the countryside” when it dismissed the last application for the development of the site as a scrapyard in 2004.

MEPA had found when turning down the development application at he time that, “the direct conflict between the activity taking place and the site upon which it is being carried out cannot be emphasised more. The activity is purely industrial and as such should be located in an industrial zone; on the other hand the site is designated as a Rural Conservation Area and in this sense should be protected from any harmful impacts.”

MEPA also pointed out that the likely impacts are physical overspill into the valley, leakages through the ground, which are made worse by the presence of chrome, as well as its adverse visual impact.