Safi Nationalist mayor Pietru Pawl Busuttil's dream of building a villa with a pool on the pig farm which was the scene of a police frame-up on him 24 years ago has evaporated after the planning authority turned down his application.

Earlier this month the Malta Environment and Planning Authority's Development Control Commission reversed a decision taken just weeks before the 2008 general election to grant the well-known mayor an outline development permit for the site.

At the time Mepa had justified its decision on the basis of new agricultural policy to turn disused and abandoned farms - despite being outside development zone - into habitable dwellings.

Mr Busuttil became a Nationalist hero after he was framed in 1986 for the murder of PN activist Raymond Caruana at the party club Gudja. Police had planted the weapon, as well as other items, at his pig farm, and charged him with the killing.

In 2003, Mr Busuttil had applied to demolish the farm and construct warehouses. Both applications were turned down.

In September 2004, Mr Busuttil filed an application to demolish his disused pig farm located off Birzebbuġa Road, in a rural conservation area, outside the Safi development zone. He proposed instead to build a residence with an underlying garage along with a swimming pool.

The outline development permit was issued in February 2008 subject to a number of conditions, including the demolition of the existing pig farm which only covers a fraction of the land in question.

The condition laid down that prior to the beginning of the construction of this development, "the disused pig farm is to be demolished and that the remainder of the site is reverted to arable agriculture land".

However, after this was issued, Mr Busuttil sold the disused section of the pig farm.

When the full development permit application was being discussed by Mepa, they saw that the farm had been sold and received correspondence from a lawyer representing the new owner.

He argued that the pig farm should not be considered further in conjunction with the application since it was no longer Mr Busuttil's property.

Mr Busuttil's outline development permit was among the issues raised by Mepa Auditor Joe Falzon in a report published in April 2009 which dealt with permits issued just days before the general election.

In his report, Mr Falzon reprimanded Mepa for using a new agricultural policy to justify an outline permit granted to Mr Busuttil. This policy states that an existing farm building may be converted to a dwelling subject to a number of conditions.