Armier walls at allegedly illegal site built days after PA stop order - rangers

Walls were built at an allegedly illegal construction site in Armier just days after the owner was ordered to stop works by the Planning Authority, the Malta Ranger Unit said on Friday.

The environmental NGO said its rangers first flagged the site on May 30, after coming across works on land which, according to them, had previously been unbuilt.

After checking the Planning Authority’s geo-server, the rangers said they found no permit covering the works and alerted PA enforcement officers.

According to the MRU, enforcement officers confirmed there were no permits in place and opened an enforcement case after visiting the site around an hour and a half later. By that time, the people carrying out the works had left, the rangers said.

But the unit said works continued in the days that followed.

In its latest update on Facebook, the MRU said rangers returned to the area on June 3 and found that “hundreds of blocks” brought to the site after the first report had been moved closer to the building area.

The rangers documented the works and were later informed that PA officers had already been on site and had ordered the owner to stop.

According to the MRU, the owner was told that if works continued, an enforcement case would be opened against him within 16 days.

However, the rangers said that by Thursday morning, metre-high walls had been built around the site.

“This morning our rangers again alerted the PA of workers on site having built metre-high walls around the site,” the unit said.

“The workers left in a rush, just before PA officers arrived on site.”

The MRU said its rangers had again gathered evidence of the works and handed it to the authority.

“This impunity has to end today,” the NGO said, arguing that the current enforcement system allows developers to keep building even after being ordered to stop.

The unit is calling for larger fines for breaches of stop notices, the confiscation of vehicles used in illegal works, and for sites to be closed off until any damage is reversed.

“It should not be an option for anyone to continue illegal works,” the MRU said.

The latest case comes as the rangers continue to highlight what they describe as a growing problem of illegal construction in broad daylight, particularly near the coast.

In a separate post on June 1, the MRU pointed to another White Tower Bay case as an example of what it described as “full impunity” created by weak enforcement laws.

In that case, the rangers said they first noticed suspicious activity on January 18, when a truck was parked in what they believed was a way of shielding works from view.

Three days later, they said, the truck was briefly moved and works began. The rangers alerted the PA, but said officers arrived more than two hours later, after the people involved had left.

The PA’s public enforcement file for that case, EC/00009/26, says it concerns unauthorised development consisting of a brick boathouse or beachroom structure with an external staircase on scheduled land at Triq ir-Ramla tat-Torri l-Abjad, Mellieħa.

The case is listed as active, with daily fines due.

The MRU said that despite a notice ordering works to stop, the structure continued to develop over the following weeks, with a top floor, internal works, windows, an excavated cesspit and water tanks installed on the roof.

“All this whilst the PA ‘demands work to stop’,” the rangers said.

The Malta Ranger Unit, which was set up by volunteers in 2023, regularly patrols countryside, coastal and protected areas and reports suspected environmental crimes to the authorities.

The unit has repeatedly argued that enforcement delays allow illegal works to become a fait accompli, especially in sensitive areas.

“Our monitoring will continue,” the rangers said.