MIDI insists permit delays 'automatically extended' its Manoel Island timeframes

The developers behind the Manoel Island project, argued on Wednesday that permit delays automatically extended their project timeframes.

MIDI said they were confident that works would be substantially complete by the extended completion date.

On Tuesday, the prime minister said the government was analysing the Manoel Island concession to determine whether any of its clauses have been breached. He said he had “asked for an analysis from a legal perspective, as well as in terms of planning, timelines and permits, to see if there are any breaches of the concession”.

Environmental campaigners have gathered more than 29,000 signatures for a petition calling for the government's concession agreement to be rescinded and for the island to be 'returned to the people' as a national park, claiming contract conditions had been breached.

The June 2000 concession agreement stipulated that the development had to be “substantially completed” by March 31, 2023. At the core of the concession agreement was the restoration of Fort Manoel, now completed, and the building of several apartment blocks, which has yet to start.

NGO Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar on Tuesday claimed the developers, MIDI,  "lost the permit due to their unethical behaviour".

But MIDI fired back on Wednesday, saying it was the NGO that was unethical and its claims were unfounded, misleading, and did not reflect the facts of the situation.

MIDI said the FAA's strategy was to appeal every decision taken by the authorities in the hope that the delays would negatively impact the time frames associated with development obligations.

Going over various stages of the permitting process and the rejection of various FAA appeals by tribunals and the courts along the way, MIDI said the Planning Authority eventually approved the Outline Development Permit for Manoel Island on 16 September 2021. After yet more appeals, the Outline Development Permit was only definitively confirmed in May 2023.

MIDI said that the FAA’s statement that it was not entitled to an extension to the March 2023 substantial completion date demonstrated the NGO's bad faith, as it failed to take into account the contractual provisions which stated that deadlines were automatically extended if delays were associated with the issue of development permits, archaeological finds or events outside MIDI’s control. 

"The delays encountered at both Tigne Point and Manoel Island are clearly documented and include the delays associated with the archaeological finds, delays associated with the approval of development permits and most recently the ongoing delay associated with the requirement to prepare a Heritage Impact Assessment associated with Manoel Island," the company said.

"In this regard MIDI reiterates that it is confident that there is sufficient time to substantially complete the Manoel Island development within the timeframe from the issue of the executable full development permit and the extended completion date."