The Commissioner for the Environment and Planning within the Ombudsman office has confirmed he has started an investigation into the workings of the Planning Authority over the Tat-Tlata quarry case in Rabat, Malta.

The investigation was announced by independent candidate Arnold Cassola after making a complaint to the Commissioner for the Environment in the Ombudsman office.

The complaint was about the 'illegal dumping' of rubble into the Tat-Tlata quarry in the area of Lunzjata, limits of Rabat for the last 15 years, resulting in a quarry which has been backfilled to several storeys high.

Last week, Times of Malta reported that a neighbouring farmer, 63-year-old Angelo Giordmaina, feared an increased risk of falling boulders or a landslide which could cause serious injury and damage to his property.

Giordmaina's farm has been increasingly encroached upon by the adjacent quarry over the past years, heightening his concerns.

An architect who surveyed the site a month prior had prepared a report urging immediate action. He recommended stopping works at the quarry immediately and the immediate removal of the existing "rubble mountain."

However, the quarry owner, Paul Falzon, has maintained he is doing nothing wrong.

Cassola said that the complaint he made was also about the lack of any enforcement on the part of various government authorities, in particular, the Planning Authority.