Four organisations have written to the chair of the Planning Authority and Planning Commission, as well as the Environment and Resources Authority, to warn that a planning application for stables adjacent to a protected area near Ta' Ċenċ Cliffs has been recommended for approval “without taking into consideration the land ownership and use of the stables.”

The application is on land that belongs to Excel Investments Limited, which is owned by Joseph Portelli and his partners, the NGOs claimed, saying that the stables are “clearly linked” to a massive cluster of three blocks of flats amounting to 124 flats that have been permitted by the Planning Authority.

“Din L-Art Ħelwa has appealed against two of blocks, and Moviment Graffitti is in the process of filing an appeal against the third block,” the statement by the four NGOs read.

“In the land on which the stables are located, there has been various works without a permit, including rebuilding of rubble walls and extending a dirt road to the cliff’s edge. These have taken place partly over a Natura 2000 site and Special Area of Conservation. Now the case officer has recommended approval of the stables without taking into consideration the use of the stables in this area. This goes against the spirit of polices which envisage that, in cases where stables are not on grounds of existing buildings, the Planning Authority would have to consider the use of stables and any impact that horse-riding might have on the surrounding countryside.”

“This is all the more important in stables located near protected areas, as are these ones in Sannat.”

The NGOs said that the case officer assessed the application “without taking any of this in consideration. The evidence shows that this is another example of fragmentation of planning schemes in which different parts of a larger project are fragmented into smaller components and put in different applications by different individuals. The Planning Authority then treats each application as though it was a single, unconnected application, with the result that planning polices go unheeded.”

The organisations will be present in the meeting of the Planning Commission on Tuesday to insist – as they have already done in the letter – that the case is reopened for a fresh assessment so that it can be assessed as part of a larger residential project, and probe the use of the stables and horses in this location.

The organisations will insist that planning policies have to be respected in spirit and in letter, and stop allowing powerful developers from taking shortcuts to approval of fragmentary applications.

The four NGOs that wrote the statement are Għawdix, Din l-Art Ħelwa Għawdex, Moviment Graffitti and Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar.