Decline in planning applications

A total of 859 development applications were submitted for outside development zones in 2009, an 18 per cent drop from the previous year, according to the planning authority's annual report.

However, it was not only ODZ applications that dropped. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority saw overall applications slide to 5,456, a decline of nine per cent from the 6,010 received in 2008.

The number of development notification orders, which are issued for straightforward, relatively small developments, also fell by nine per cent with the authority receiving 1,181 applications.

As a result of the lower number of applications, the number of files referred to the Development Control Commissions for a decision dropped by 16 per cent to 5,285. The DCCs granted permits in 74 per cent of decided cases while 654 applications were resubmitted for reconsideration.

Mepa's annual report published on Monday noted that following the revocation of permits in the high profile cases of Ramla l-Ħamra in 2007 and the Mistra case in 2008, requests to invoke Article 39A of the Development Planning Act "increased dramatically".

Article 39A is a clause outlining various conditions on which approved permits can be revoked. The clause was invoked last year to withdraw the last permit issued to former Nationalist Party president Victor Scerri for the extension of a farmhouse in Baħrija. In 2009 there were 32 requests for the clause to be applied with the majority consisting of claims related to misleading information. There were a small number related to "error on the face of the record". The Development Commission and the legal office investigated the claims and found that 17 were unfounded.