Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar said on Wednesday hundreds of residents were responding to its call to send a letter urging the authorities to have the Ta’ Xbiex Capitanerie demolished.
Works on the offices and restaurant along the Gżira Marina and Ta’ Xbiex promenade had started following the go-ahead by the Planning Authority in 2023.
But last month, a court annulled the permit granted to Transport Malta to develop the site.
Presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, the court of appeal noted that TM had a massive conflict of interest because it had acted as both applicant and reviewer of the permit.
The transport regulator was one of the various official stakeholders consulted by the PA on the project. In its decision, the court said an independent transport reviewer should have been assigned to that role.
The court of appeal also noted that part of the proposed project was due to take up public land, without any other public land offered as compensation for that.
The approved plan (PA/00680/22), led by architect Antoine Zammit, was to build a “capitainerie” that covered 500 square metres of space between the Gżira gardens and the yacht marina. The plan was to transform the area into an area with office space and meeting rooms, a retail outlet, a restaurant, and an outdoor catering area.
After the permit was approved in 2023, appellants filed an appeal with the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal. That appeal was rejected in October 2024 and objectors - led by residents and FAA - took their appeal to court.
But on Wednesday the FAA said despite this, "there was no evidence of action being taken to remove the illegal construction, which was hastily being built while under appeal, in the hope that once built, a solution would be found for it to be ‘sanctioned or legalised’".
Since the applicant - TM - was a government authority, the public expected it to follow the ruling of the highest institution, it said. FAA and the residents are also pressuring the lands department to take action as the "eyesore building is placed on public open land for the benefit of a few".
In a letter to the lands and transport ministers, they insist that the site of the development - which is one of the few open spaces with views across the harbour to Valletta - should be cleared of the "construction mess".
"Failure to do this would mean Malta’s authorities are ignoring Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti’s decision and do not respect Malta’s highest Court institution.
"The Maltese public has become used to the authorities supporting developers’ illegalities, but the authorities becoming the direct perpetrator of illegalities institutionalises abuse at a whole new level," the FAA said in a statement.
The residents and the NGO are also calling on the local councils of Gżira and Ta’ Xbiex to pile pressure on the authorities.
More information about the letter here.