Eleven years after being slapped with an enforcement notice and racking up a €50,000 fine, construction magnate Charles Polidano is yet to regularise or remove an illegal development near the Poligas plant, in Ħal Farruġ, Luqa.
The saga came to the fore a few days ago after it transpired that a tract of land behind this plant had been covered with concrete.
Photos sent to Times of Malta by a reader, who preferred to remain anonymous, show the freshly-laid cement in an area surrounded by old precast concrete pillars.
A search on the planning authority website confirmed that illegal developments on this site have been going on for at least 11 years. In 2009, the planning authority had issued an enforcement notice and daily fines.
Back then, the illegality consisted of dumping of inert material, placing heavy plant machinery on the site and the construction of the precast elements.
The reader was incensed that after all these years, the issue is still pending.
“How is this abuse possible in 2020? After all these years they make another attempt to surpass the system by abusively laying concrete on ODZ land the size of a football ground? Are they building another factory?” he asked.
A planning authority spokesman said inspectors who went to the site on Monday confirmed that fresh cement had been laid though no works were going on at the time. He said the contravener was ordered to stop and remove the illegalities.
Alternatively, he could file a planning application asking to regularise the infringements.
As for the daily fine, it was pointed out that it had reached the maximum €50,000 allowed by law.
The daily fine has reached the maximum €50,000 allowed by law
The PA did not say if the fine had been paid but promised to keep monitoring the site.
A spokesman for Polidano Group declined to comment.
Four years ago, the group pledged to clear the area in question after being the subject of direct action by the planning authority in 2013. The site was at the time being used as a makeshift storage depot and scrapyard, and had been sealed off with concrete blocks.
In a separate case going back to last June, the planning authority halted illegal works at Montekristo Estate, in Ħal Farruġ which also belongs to Polidano, known as Iċ-Ċaqnu.
It is estimated that over the years he has racked up around €700,000 in fines while there are over 20 pending court cases which Polidano instituted to challenge the enforcement action.