Ombudsman recommends doubling development fines, seizing kiosks

Updated 11.59am with ADPD reaction below.

The Ombudsman has recommended doubling the maximum fines for irregular developments to €100,000 and amending regulations to allow for the confiscation of irregular kiosks. 

In a statement posted to its website, the Ombudsman said the recommendations followed an investigation into a complaint “alleging the improper capping of the daily fine applied to a substantial irregular development”.

While not specifying the offending development, the Ombudsman said it had launched an investigation to find out if existing regulations governing daily penalties and administrative fines were adequate.

The investigation revealed that the current penalty cap of €50,000 for irregular development, established in 2012, “neither reflects present-day realities nor serves as an effective deterrent against large-scale or persistent irregular developments”.

In March, Planning Minister Clint Camilleri revealed in Parliament that some 162 sites had reached the €50,000 cap for daily fines, the oldest dating back as far as 1997.

Responding to a parliamentary question from shadow planning minister Stanley Zammit, Camilleri said the Planning Authority “takes direct action to remove illegalities according to the priority of pending cases” without answering what further action was being taken.

On Thursday, it emerged that a string of illegal developments – some dating back to 2008 – at Montekristo Estates are to be sanctioned once the owner, construction tycoon Charles Polidano, also known as iċ-Ċaqnu, pays €1.8 million in fines and a planning contribution

The Ombudsman investigation also revealed that regulations “inadequately address” irregular mobile structures such as kiosks, canopies, chairs and tables.

It noted that due to being easily removed and then put back, such structures “limit enforcement to mere warnings with limited practical effect”.

Kiosks, canopies and chairs and tables have long been a thorn in residents’ side. In 2022, lawyer Claire Bonello, representing aggrieved residents, described the situation on the Sliema-Gżira promenade as “utter lawlessness” after the Trattoria del Mare kiosk extended its footprint a year after being forced to reduce its “takeover” of the promenade.

Meanwhile, in 2023, it emerged that Fajtata Kiosk, an illegal structure installed in a Marsascala car park close to the beach, was being fined only €10 per day as the Planning Authority considered its next steps.

The Ombudsman recommended doubling the daily fine cap “to better reflect current conditions and strengthen deterrence” and amending regulations to allow irregular mobile structures to be confiscated.

Such confiscation, it said, would align with existing traffic regulations “concerning the removal of encumbering objects”.

Ministry silence

The Ombudsman contacted the planning ministry in December 2023 and again in March last year requesting a comment on whether the ministry believed the €50,000 fine was still appropriate or serving as a useful deterrent, especially in cases of scheduled buildings or tree felling.

It also asked whether it was time for regulations to be amended to tackle irregular unfixed structures.

The ministry acknowledged the Ombudsman’s December 2023 e-mail, saying it had “taken note” of it and that the matter would be “discussed internally” before it commented “in the near future”.

No further communication from the ministry was listed on the Ombudsman website.

A third letter to the ministry, sent in April when the parliamentary watchdog reiterated its observations and asked if the ministry would implement its recommendations, also went unanswered.

In May, the Ombudsman wrote to the prime minister informing him of its investigation and recommendations.

A letter sent to the Speaker by the Ombudsman at the start of this month, including its recommendations for tabling in Parliament, remarked that “the current situation is not enough of a deterrent to curb abuse”.

ADPD: Government says the institutions work, and ignores

In a reaction, the ADPD political party said that while it was clear that institutions such as the Ombudsman were doing their work, they were being undermined by the prime minister and ministers such as Clint Camilleri. They boasted that the institutions worked, and then ignored them.

Sandra Gauci, party chairperson, said ignoring such recommendations by the ombudsman reflected government arrogance.

This, she said, was a government or nepotism favouring those it itself used to call the 'barons.'