Reference is made to a report that got published in The Malta Independent, dated 21st July 2009, under the header ‘Mtarfa residents object to Mepa plans’ whereby it was reported that the Authority alleged that a road in Mtarfa could be re-opened without any expropriation.

The Authority denies this quote, as MEPA’s remit here is only to plan the road in the public interest. Land expropriation or otherwise and the actual development of the road is not in the hands of the Authority, barring its supervision for enforcement purposes.

The reported Mtarfa case followed a PC application to re-introduce a u-shaped road. For this application to be made, a survey of the whole area was needed. The Authority was having difficulty for quite some time to enter the particular site, as access was being denied by the residents. The matter was brought up before the Mepa Board who agreed that the Director of Planning should act under Section 50 of the Development Planning Act after giving reasonable notice to the residents to allow access.

Since no consent was given, the Authority had to act under section 50 with the assistance of the police to gain access to the site and carry out a topographic survey of the site, the lack of which was hindering the continuation of the PC application process.

The submission of the PC application can now be made once the survey of the area has been carried out, allowing the public to scrutinize the plans and submit their objections once the application is published according to law.

Peter Gingell

Communications Office

Malta Environment & Planning Authority