An illegal development that includes a concrete batching plant and a yard for storing heavy machinery and vehicles has been operating in a quiet, agricultural area in Mġarr for over a year.
In spite of an enforcement notice (EC/00040/20) and daily fines issued by the Planning Authority (PA) since March of last year, the site, in Triq il-Palma, has been expanding.
The site, which is outside the development zone and has been scheduled as an area of ecological importance and high landscape value, has seen such extensive flouting of planning laws that the PA is also reviewing the case for potential direct action.
Besides a concrete batching plant and heavy machinery, the area was altered significantly, featuring underground structures to store materials, a room that is used as an office and various piles of construction debris which are stored on-site.
The site owner, Carmel Camilleri, had tried to sanction (PA/ 03648/20) a tented structure used to store debris as well as the removal of soil to create a parking area for vehicles.
That sanctioning application was refused at the end of April, a PA spokesperson told Times of Malta.
Camilleri is being fined daily for the illegality as well as for additional works being carried out on site. The PA spokesperson said he had accrued €8,780 in fines between April 18, 2020 and March 10 of this year. According to the law, daily fines can continue to accrue up to a maximum of €50,000.
The architect who had applied for the sanctioning on behalf of Camilleri, former PN MP Ċensu Galea, stated that the client had asked him to sanction the site.
“The application was refused. Though the applicant has a right to appeal refusal, I do not know yet whether he will be appealing or not,” Galea said.
The applicant in question did not agree to a request for a comment at the time of writing.
According to the source that brought Times of Malta’s attention to the illegal operation, expansion of the site picked up pace after the enforcement notice.
A visit to the area a few days ago confirmed that the site is barely visible from the roadside, with low-lying buildings and trees that make the whole operation less visible to the general public.
The source also revealed that prior to January of last year, the area was home to makeshift structures that were used as storage before the project began morphing into a complete operation.
The site in question is surrounded by other, minor illegalities that were sanctioned in the past or are still subject to pending action from the PA.
Another enforcement notice (EC/00559/07) was slapped on an adjacent area way back in 2007 for having changed an agricultural store into a mechanic’s workshop.
The same site also saw illegal land engineering works that led to the elevation of a passageway as well as rock-cutting within scheduled land, also in 2007.
The enforcement notice (EC/00578/07) had been dropped after the PA had sanctioned the works. The illegal batching plant in Mġarr is but one of at least 17 that were previously identified across the island.
Two years ago, a series of Times of Malta articles had outed the Gozo ministry for utilising the services of an illegal plant owned by developer Joseph Portelli.
Following media reports, the PA had conducted an assessment on the amount of illegal concrete batching plants across Malta and Gozo in 2019. The PA’s assessment had identified 17 in all, and Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg had admitted there was a “problem” with the amount of irregular activity.
At the time, Borg had stated that the PA would further look into whether the existing plants could be regularised amid industry concerns that shutting all of them down would cripple the construction industry.
The minister had also added that he had instructed the PA to monitor all sites and that he would not tolerate “defending any illegalities”, arguing that it was the authority’s job to police such places.