Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti has confirmed the revocation of a permit granted to construction magnate Charles Polidano to redevelop four historic townhouses and their gardens in the heart of Balzan.
Despite being at an advanced stage, the latest court ruling confirms that all the work carried out on the townhouses is illegal.
The chief justice threw out Polidano’s legal arguments – one of them saying the permit had sanctioned the illegalities – deeming the arguments “unfounded” and “unsustainable”.
The court was determining two appeals filed by Polidano after the Environment Planning and Review Tribunal withdrew a permit that had been issued in 2014.
The chief justice upheld a counter argument saying that the illegalities carried out by Polidano before the planning application was approved should have been addressed before the Planning Authority even considered the application.
The regulator had granted the permit by five votes to four despite the developer facing a €100,000 court fine for irregularities already carried out.
The application was to renovate three adjoining houses along Main Street, Balzan and extend them into their gardens. Parking spaces for four cars in the garden were also proposed, with an entrance through a fourth building.
The tribunal ruled that the illegalities, covered by two enforcement notices, should have automatically excluded the application from being considered
The site is in the Balzan village core, close to the parish church. One of the properties, a 300-year-old palazzo and its gardens, dates to the time of the knights and is said to have been used by Grand Master De Rohan as his country residence.
The building next door served as the servants’ quarters and near it was a building used as stables. The property also has an underground cistern.
In 2011, the PA issued an emergency conservation order with a list of remedial works that needed to be carried out on the buildings. Then, in 2012, the palazzo was included in the national list of scheduled buildings.
Polidano appealed the court-imposed fine handed down in 2013 after allegedly uprooting trees and destroying a rubble wall in the gardens behind the properties. The appeal court eventually reduced the fine to €10,000.
The tribunal ruled that the illegalities, covered by two enforcement notices, should have automatically excluded the application from being considered.
The first enforcement notice was issued following the demolition of part of the building, part of a wall as well as structures in the garden, all without a permit.
Times of Malta reported last March that Polidano, known as iċ-Ċaqnu, continued to build a large swimming pool and deck in the grounds of the 300-year-old properties and only stopped after being formally notified that the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal had revoked the permit.
Work on the pool and its deck continued at a fast pace in the period between a tribunal decision to revoke the permit on March 14 and formal notification on March 23.