Over the past four weeks a sizeable patch of land at Gozo’s tiny yet picturesque San Blas Bay has been cleared of all vegetation, a metal gate and a canopy structure have been built and rubble walls have been torn down – preparing the way for what sources speaking with this newspaper have said will become a camping site and a kiosk, or an exclusive beach area for a Gozitan hotel

Such a development, equivalent to approximately one-third the size of the beach, in such a pristine area would normally elicit scores of objections when the permit application comes before the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa). But therein lies the problem and a major concern: no planning application for the development on the sensitive site has been lodged with Mepa as yet.

But despite that, work is steaming ahead on an unsanctioned development that threatens to mar this pristine jewel of a beach and have it suffer the same fate as that of Paradise Bay and the Blue Lagoon.

Making matters worse still is the fact that the land in question, which lies just metres from the sand on the right-hand side of the bay, is not privately owned but is instead public land, as this newspaper has determined from Land Registry documents.

Over this last week, Gozitan entrepreneur Joseph Portelli, who owns a number of companies and properties including the Downtown Hotel in Victoria, was seen on site giving instructions to workers.

The Mepa website shows no indication of any planning permit having been filed for the site, let alone the granting of permission for work to proceed, nor is there a Mepa planning notice affixed to the site.

Curiously, informed sources told this newspaper that last Tuesday Mr Portelli was on site with Malta Environment and Planning Authority Chief Executive Officer Johann Buttigieg. As a Mepa CEO would not normally involve himself in hands-on enforcement activities, his appearance at the apparently completely illegal site has raised eyebrows.

Business connections

But research carried out by this newspaper shows that Menfi Ltd – the company developing the €20 million Hal Saghtrija residential development in Zebbug, Gozo – is co-owned, among others, by Mr Portelli and Adrian Buttigieg, who, this newspaper is given to understand, is “close” to Johan Buttigieg, the Mepa CEO.

Moreover, Johann Buttigieg’s own wife is in business partnerships with Adrian Buttigieg in three other companies: Ta Pinu Developments Ltd, Zebbiegh Developments Ltd and M.M.B. Ltd.

 

Area protected

The area as a whole is under Level 2 environmental protection by Mepa – the second-highest of four levels of protection applicable to such sites – in that it is an ‘Area of Ecological Importance/Site of Scientific Importance’, so much so that a permit application to prune a tamarisk tree at the bay had been turned down by Mepa last year.

Other applications have been refused by Mepa for, for example, building a room and gate without permission, while a kiosk owner also had Mepa action taken against him for cooking and serving food and for hiring deckchairs and umbrellas without permission.

The spot is also an area of “agriculture with a significant area of natural vegetation” according to the European Environmental Agency’s CORINE land cover database, but the natural vegetation on the patch of land being developed has been completely obliterated.

Just last summer, uproar ensued after 29 boulders went missing from the bay. The boulders were later found by the Gozitan Criminal Investigation Department in a nearby field. Gozo Ministry workers had also cleaned algae off the beach with a bulldozer and a mechanical shovel without a Mepa permit.

 

An exclusive beach for hotel guests

The Malta Tourism Authority’s website describes San Blas as a ‘peaceful and secluded beach’, and it has also been rated as one of Malta and Gozo’s best 10 beaches. But as matters stand, the serene area appears set to become blasted by commercial exploitation. Also, as has been the past experience in idyllic spots such as Paradise Bay, such developments tend to mushroom incrementally with time and grow far beyond their original infringement. 

In actual fact, sources in Gozo have alleged that the site in question could become an exclusive beach area reserved for Downtown Hotel guests, just like the concession given by the previous administration for part of the beach at St George’s Bay.