While the highly controversial development of a tourist villa accommodation complex perched just above Gozo’s picturesque Ramla Bay has been dismissed, repeated calls on the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to take action with respect to existing illegal developments on the property continue to fall on deaf ears.
Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday, Xaghra local councillor Carmen Bajada explained how following the revocation of the controversial application fort the site, located on the slopes between Ramla Bay and Calypso’s Cave, architect Lino Bianco, on Mrs Bajada’s behalf, filed a request with MEPA in October 2007 to issue an enforcement order regarding the illegal portions of the existing site – a request that has, to date, not been met.
With no action having been taken, another request to the MEPA chairman was filed on 8 February 2008, which noted, “Since our submission, four calendar months have lapsed. Why did MEPA fail to issue the relative enforcement notice(s) when the Authority is aware of the significant illegal development on the site?”
The would-be developers had filed an appeal against the application’s revocation on 5 December 2007 – an appeal that is to be heard on 27 June of this year, according to the Appeals Board’s agenda.
Mrs Bajada is perplexed as to why the long-standing illegalities on the site have not been dealt with, and also expressed concern that a future government could very well see that the permit is approved.
Mrs Bajada pointed out that when comparing the existing development at the site with the development application for the site filed in 1984, which was later also turned down, “it transpires that a significant part of Zone C, declared as developed and disturbed land in planning applications PA5138/02 and PA 7902/05, is not covered by planning consent and thus is not legally committed”.
“Thus,” she noted, “given this illegal development on site covered by planning applications PA5138/02 and PA 7902/05, the chairman of the Planning Authority was requested to apply and enforce articles 51, 52 and 55A of the Development Planning Act, 1992.”
Action on the complaint and the illegalities, however, has not yet been taken.
Residents of Xaghra, meanwhile, also fear the development, which was thrown out by MEPA in the wake of a practically unprecedented protest in Valletta last summer, could be given the go-ahead when an appeal lodged by the developers is heard in June.
“We are worried that after the election the previous application will somehow be revived and the permits issued,” she commented, given the fact that ministers and representatives of the Nationalist Party, including Environment Minister and parliamentarian Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando have both expressed their favour for the application. The Malta Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika, she said, had spoken out against the development.