The business partner of Gozitan property tycoon Joseph Portelli has applied to sanction two swimming pools which a court declared illegal, while also filing an application to remove part of an old public footpath.

Mark Agius, known as Ta' Dirjanu, filed two separate planning applications and one planning control application in recent weeks after a court revoked a permit granted for two swimming pools as part of a major Portelli development in the Gozitan village of Sannat.

The pools are part of an apartment block project which was approved by the Planning Authority back in 2021. The project saw two separate blocks built on agricultural land - but while the land where the apartment blocks themselves were built was inside the development zone, the area for the two swimming pools was outside the development zone.

The PA approved two apartment blocks as part of this project - a block of 29 flats with a 215 square metre pool area in an ODZ, and a block of 22 flats with a 177 square metre pool area also in an ODZ right next door.

The geography of the site is such that a public footpath which has been present for years - it shows up on a 1968 map of the area - runs between the apartment blocks and the respective pool areas.

There were strong objections to the projects, particularly to the swimming pools, with the Environment & Resources Authority arguing at the time that the proposed development should be limited to just the development zone and not encroach into an ODZ.

The Planning Authority, however, approved the permits, and the approval was confirmed by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT).

The approval was granted on the basis that the rural policy allows owners to develop a 75 square metre pool area which can increase by 5 square metres for each additional dwelling on the site - but in the case of an ODZ pool, this can only be approved within the borders of the property it serves.

This was the sticking point for the developers: a ruling last year by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti found that both the PA and the EPRT had misapplied policies, noting that the pool areas were separated from the apartment blocks by the public footpath.

For this reason, Agius - who usually fronts developments for his business partners Portelli and Daniel Refalo - filed a Planning Control application, which determines the zoning of an area, that seeks the elimination of the part of the public footpath that separates the apartment blocks from the pool area.

Should the public footpath be eliminated, then the area would be reclassified as a "private open space" - paving the way for the sanctioning of the two pool areas which have now been deemed illegal.

Applications to sanction both of those areas were filed in September 2024 and published by the Planning Authority last month.

They are both awaiting a recommendation from the Planning Authority's case officers, while the zoning application is awaiting surveys.

The development, meanwhile, has almost been finished, with the pool areas themselves both built.

This was despite the fact that the development was under appeal. The court decision was handed down in March 2024 but the Planning Authority never issued an enforcement notice against what was then an illegal development.

The Prime Minister, meanwhile, has long promised that legislative changes which would address development still being allowed despite a pending appeal would be introduced - but to date, no such reforms have been tabled.