The Siggiewi local council has cried foul at a raft of illegal works being carried out on the site of a quarry in the locality’s rural area.

In a complaint filed with the Planning Authority, the local council produced images showing a list of breaches of planning and environmental policies being committed at the site, with the illegalities ranging from building structures without permits, improper dumping, and allowing oil to seep from machinery.

Their complaint concerns a quarry site in Triq Burgabrun and Triq L-Imqabba in Siggiewi, where C & J Bonavia have recently applied “To sanction deposition of inert material and proposed phasing out plan for the restoration of disused quarry to recycle construction and demolition waste for a period of 25 years.”

The council however states that the site has been venue to a raft of planning and environmental illegalities, which have all come to the detriment of the environment and of residents in the area.

The local council expressed its preoccupation at the illegalities in a press statement published on Friday, saying that while the site had been approved for development some years ago, it was only approved on the premise that the conditions imposed would be adhered to – something which they said is not the case.

The council said that it had received a considerable number of complaints in the past weeks from residents and from farmers in the area who have been negatively affected by the ongoing illegal works.

The council said that it had engaged an architect to verify the legality of the works, and added that it became clear through this that the established conditions of the permit in question were not being respected – something which they said was coming at the cost of the environment and the residents in the surrounding area.

The architect engaged by the council identified a number of points where the site owners have breached the conditions laid out in their permit.

The conditions being breached were explained in the statement.

Amongst the breached conditions is that no stockpile of materials should exceed three meters in height and that any such stockpile cannot be left to accumulate for longer than 48 hours.

Pictures in the architect’s report show a mountain of construction waste effectively dumped in such a manner which detracts from the character of the ODZ and its surrounding environment, and also affects the long distance views of Siggiewi.

Furthermore, the requisite that any building, structure, or plant which isn’t covered by the planning permit should be subject to a separate development application, with the council here noting that a number of structures which are not covered by the permit have been built.

An image showing a half-built concrete structure was in fact shared with the report.

The operator of any works also is responsible for ensuring that the site doesn’t handle waste of people who are not authorised to leave waste at the said site.  The council noted in its report that there was a huge amount of waste, including cars with no number plates at the site.

The process of refilling the quarry on the site should have also been done with construction waste and not with any other waste.  Pictures shared with the report show soil strewn with plastic bags and other plastic waste being used to fill in the quarry.

The applicant meanwhile should also have taken all possible dust prevention measures, and an image was in fact shared as part of the report showing a dust cloud emerging from the site while a bulldozer carries out works; and also followed measures related to oil contamination from the machinery which is used on the site – something which the operator had tied himself to do in their own method statement but has failed to do so, with another image showing a trail of oil streaming down from machinery.

With all this in mind, the council said that it had confirmed its preoccupations, particularly over the fact that a large number of legal obligations and conditions were not being followed by the operator, to the detriment of the residents of the locality.

“More so, the operator – against every permit given to him so far – is widening his operation in this zone, and has started a process of sanctioning of part of his operation, after the Planning Authority received a number of reports about these illegalities which were and still are ongoing up to today,” the council said.

The sanctioning application in question – PA 7598/21 – was submitted by the same operator to sanction a pile of material which is currently present on the site – something which, the council said, not only goes against a number of PA and ERA policies but also changes Siggiewi’s rural landscape.

The council therefore called on the PA and the ERA to visit the site and establish for themselves whether the operation ongoing there is in conformity with the law or not  and whether the operator is following the inert waste disposal in quarries policy and the code of practices for quarry working and restoration policies.

The council finally also appealed to the concerned authorities to shoulder responsibility and ensure that there is effective and strong enforcement so ensure that the illegal works are not a detriment to residents and their families.

The statement was signed by the local council, following unanimous approval from all its members.