The planning ombudsman has reported the Planning Authority to parliament for ignoring his recommendation to revoke a permit for a concrete structure along the St Julian’s promenade because it is over three times the permissible size.
The Commissioner for Environment and Planning within the Office of the Ombudsman, Alan Saliba, last October recommended that the PA should invoke an article of the Development Planning Act that allows it to revoke a permit granted in error.
However, his recommendations were ignored by the PA, so he has sent the report to parliament for action.
The planning ombudsman investigated the structure upon receipt of a complaint from a resident over the erection of a room that stands on the roof of a structure at the Neptune’s Waterpolo and Swimming Club in Ċensu Tabone Street.
The complainant told the ombudsman that the structure was being built through a development notification order (DNO) when it should have gone through the normal permit process.
Matthew Bonello had filed the DNO in April proposing the construction of a room for an ATM machine and an adjacent ticket booth, both 2.7 metres high. The PA endorsed the request and a permit was issued.
In its reply to the planning ombudsman during the course of the investigation, the PA said it had not considered that work would be undertaken below road level, adding that it was the responsibility of the architect submitting the plans to indicate such work.
The ombudsman noted that such a structure is regulated by subsidiary legislation covering DNOs, which states that structures such as post boxes, ATMs, vending machines and telephone booths cannot have an area larger than one square metre. He said the structure approved by the PA was three times the permissible size.
The ombudsman said the PA had committed errors in its endorsement of the DNO and had “irregularly approved it”.
He recommended that it be revoked and that the PA take any enforcement action it deems fit.
However, the ombudsman stepped up his action after the PA failed to act on his recommendations. In the meantime, work on the structure continued at a fast pace and is now nearing completion.
In the covering letter to parliament, Saliba said he wanted to bring the matter to parliament’s attention since the Planning Authority not only failed to act on the recommendation but had not even responded to the report. This permitted the work and the “environmental destruction” to continue.
In reply to questions by Times of Malta, the PA said it had taken note of the ombudsman’s report, adding that it had received a development application over the ready-built structure.