Plans are under way to take back illegally occupied Fort Bengħajsa “in the coming weeks”, according to government sources.
The 20th-century fort has been converted into a hunting complex and occupied for over a decade.
“A process is under way so that in the coming weeks the authorities will take over the building and start a process to rehabilitate it,” government sources said.
The fort, in the limits of Birżebbuġa, has the highest level of heritage protection and has been described by Visit Malta as a “magnificent reminder of Malta’s glorious past”.
But its occupiers have built an illegal house and garages inside, according to a Planning Authority enforcement notice first issued in 2016. And the moat that surrounds the fort is littered with scrap metal, construction waste and a dumped sofa.
In October, in response to a parliamentary question, Lands Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi told PN MP Rebekah Borg that legal letters had been issued in response to the occupation of the fort.
Three households told to 'vacate'
Times of Malta understands that the Lands Authority sent the letters to at least three households occupying the fort and these were addressed to a total of nine individuals.
Those individuals are Emanuel Ellul, Louis Vella, Julian Vella, George Louis Vella, Joelene Grima, Richard Azzopardi, Josephine Norman, George Borg and Doris Borg. The letters are also addressed to “unknown occupants” of the plots.
The letters say that any legal rent of the properties expired in 2011 and so those in the fort should vacate their plots and any other parts of the fort that have been occupied.
In 2023, then Lands Minister Silvio Schembri said that parts of the fortification had been rented out as cow farms. While one plot has still an active lease, other parts of the fort were illegally occupied after the leases expired and were not renewed in February 2011, he said.
Schembri said that the squatters were ordered to leave in November of that year, but that order was not followed through.
“The action of eviction was never enforced,” he said.
He was replying to a parliamentary question, also by Rebakah Borg.
Grade 1 listed building
In 2011, Malta Today reported that a plot in Fort Benghajsa was initially rented out for animal husbandry in 1973 for an annual fee of €93. Another plot was rented out in 1981 for €177, while a third plot was leased out in 1996 for €419.
Built by the British between 1910 and 1912 as the last major coastal defence fort, Fort Bengħajsa was given Grade 1 status in 1996. The Cultural Heritage Act bans any demolition or alteration work on Grade 1 buildings that would impair their setting or change their external appearance, except for restoration purposes.
Fort Bengħajsa formed part of a string of fortifications in the area. The large polygonal fort was built directly along a cliff face and housed six gun emplacements that held canons.
A Planning Authority enforcement notice lists the Lands Authority and Richard Azzopardi as contraveners of the still active case. The case comes with daily fines, but the Planning Authority website notes that these are all ‘pending’.
The area appears to be actively used by hunters and trappers. A finch trapping site and at least five hunting hides are on site. A large gun emplacement has been converted into an aviary, holding live birds.
A typical hunting installation where eucalyptus trees are planted next to lined empty cans is also on site. The cans are used as rattles to scare off any birds settled in trees so that they can then be shot, a hunting expert told Times of Malta.