The Planning Board today approved the sanctioning of various works which were carried out at a brick plant site and an adjacent site located in Ħal Farruġ limits of Siġġiewi. Both sites have a history of a significant number of approved development applications which include the head office and fuel service station, the PA said in a statement.

The developments and deviations were carried out by Polidano Brothers in Hal-Farrug, over a decade after the PA first opened enforcement proceedings against the project.

The Board agreed with the recommendation of the Development Management Directorate and granted planning permission for these works to get regularised. The Board only agreed to sanction those works which fall within the Area of Containment (AOC). All the developments comply with all the requirements of the competent consultees/authorities.

AOCs are identified in the Central Malta Local Plan, North West Local Plan and the South Malta Local Plan and predominantly accommodate industrial or commercial-related activities located outside the development zone. In 2006, Parliament had determined their extent and delineated their contours and where the land has been disturbed and is currently used for a variety of purposes, namely industry and commercial buildings which sit side by side and are usually not compatible with residential areas. In Malta, there are 36 Areas of Containment.

The Board also requested that before the issuing of the executable permit, the applicant needs to remove two extensions that were developed and fall outside the AOC at the back of one of the sites. A €36,500 fine was also imposed. 

On one of the sites, the Board sanctioned works that mainly consisted in the addition of a basement level and the redesign and additional of levels on the approved Head Office Block, the redesign of the approved fuel station and a number of change of uses.  On the site of the brick plant, which site had an approved master plan, the Board mainly sanctioned a storage area overlying an approved reservoir, a number of change of uses and the installation of new equipment related to the approved plant operations.