“AD chairperson Arnold Cassola is factually mistaken when he states that during the time I was responsible for MEPA, the boundaries for development in the zone referred to as Ta’ Hagrat in Mgarr had been changed,” former minister George Pullicino said.

Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Pullicino said that one can easily see from the the two site plans, that the development boundaries which are applicable today are the same as the boundaries approved back in 1989 in parliament tied to the Temporary Provision Schemes (TPS).

According to Mr Pullicino, apart from the fact that an application for development can be found on the site, PA 00357/13, there had also been another application in 2006, PA number 00306/06.

The latter had been refused on 22 July 2008 while the report made by the case officer who had recommended the permit is refused had been done in February of 2008.

“This all confirms that the statement made by AD was meant to deceive and did not bother to verify the facts before making certain claims when it said that I was politically responsible,” he said.

Image 1 shows the development boundaries (dotted red line) as approved in Parliament in 1989.

Image 2 shows the development boundaries as approved in 2006 and which still applies until this day.