Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s affirmations that he was not aware of the details of the nightclub development on his land at Mistra, and that he had no formal contract with the tenants are now confirmed to be outright fibs.
On Thursday, Labour published a copy of the lease contract between Dr Pullicino Orlando’s company and DJRL Ltd, which obtained permits to build the 2,000 square metres nightclub in the pristine Natura 2000 site owned by the Nationalist MP. The contract was signed on 17 January 2008, six weeks before Labour leader Dr Alfred Sant revealed the case.
The two pages of the contract presented to the press on Thursday afternoon specify, among others, that the tenant is bound to carry out the equivalent of e349,406 (Lm150,000) in “improvements to the premises of a permanent nature”, and which had to be completed by 1 June 2009. “The lessee (DJRL Ltd) shall submit copies of VAT receipts to the Lessor as final and conclusive proof that the works carried out amount to Lm150,000.”
Labour leader Dr Alfred Sant had revealed that the Nationalist candidate, MP, and “environment spokesperson,” had bought this land, consisting of a rare saline marshland habitat protected by national and EU regulations, for a declared sum of Lm12,000 in 1999.
Clause seven of the contract signed by Dr Pullicino Orlando in January 2008 gives details of the development which the new tenants will be carrying out on site: “The premises shall be used solely as an open air entertainment including nightclub, discotheque, bar, restaurant, and pool facilities, and parking, which can provide amplified music to its clients up to four o’clock in the morning…”
With the revelation of these hard facts, no one can now be duped by Dr Pullicino Orlando’s lies.
The signing of the contract between the developers and Dr Pullicino Orlando in January is another sign that the developers were quite confident they would be getting the last remaining permit they were expecting from Mepa.
It is also a confirmation that the landowner and the nightclub developers were considering the approval of the outline permit as the final thumbs up from the authorities. In the contract, Dr Pullicino Orlando also binds his tenants to complete the structural works in his protected ecological site by mid 2009, another sign that the Nationalist MP knew much more about the nightclub than what he told journalists on Saturday.
In November 2007, Mepa issued a scandalous permit for the building of a 4,000-person nightclub in the middle of a Natura 2000 site in Mistra, limits of Mellieha. The authority’s DCC Division A ignored numerous objections by environmental authorities, including the Environment Directorate, and the Department of Agriculture. The site owned by Dr Pullicino Orlando is a protected site where not even a water reservoir for agricultural purposes was allowed a few years before. The Nationalist MP had applied for this reservoir by stating that he is a “part-time farmer”. Yet back then the authorities found out that he did not really cultivate any land in the area.
The Department of Agriculture pointed out that if the nightclub development is approved, nearby fields would be ruined as well. Even an organic farming project in nearby fields will have to be scrapped if the nightclub is actually built. The nearby commercial activity would not allow the organic farming project to obtain the required certifications.
Yet, the DCC decided to ignore all this and instead considered an advice from the Malta Tourism Authority stating that the proposed nightclub at Mistra is essential for the tourism industry’s competitiveness.
Rather than admitting his involvement in the case, Dr Pullicino Orlando tried to give the impression he knew nothing about it. Yet, as maltastar.com has already revealed this week, the Nationalist candidate was not only aware of the details of the nightclub on his land, but he was also in possession of classified information that only Mepa officials can access.
(maltastar.com)