Mosta residents have sent a legal letter to the Planning Authority urging it to close a temporary access route for PAMA supermarket passing through a residential area.
Addressed to the PA and circulated to Transport Malta and Infrastructure Malta, the letter urges the authority to “initiate enforcement action” to halt access. Calling the route “unauthorised and illegal” and “indefensible” in the absence of planning permission, it calls on the PA to ensure the wall that was dismantled to make way for access is rebuilt.
The letter warns the authority that if action is not taken within four days, further legal action will follow.
Last month, Mosta residents were left fuming when a section of wall running down the side of Triq il-Waqqafa behind PAMA was knocked down to create a temporary access for the supermarket while roadworks take place on nearby Triq Pantar.
Residents said neither they nor the local council had been consulted about the plans and had only found out when they saw the wall being dismantled.
Despite receiving a joint declaration from Transport Malta, Infrastructure Malta and PAMA assuring them the works were only estimated to last four months and that the area would return to its original state afterwards, they remain unconvinced.
Resident Carmen Farrugia, who spoke to Times of Malta last month, said since the access route had been opened the area had been a “nightmare”, especially on the weekends.
“With traffic for PAMA, other nearby shops, the football ground and dance school, traffic has increased a lot,” she said.
With cars seemingly still able to access PAMA from Triq Pantar by approaching from a lane opposite, there didn’t seem to be much point to the temporary route, she added.
In an email sent by the PA to residents last month, the authority classed the route as a “traffic management” measure and therefore outside its remit –something the residents’ lawyer and Gżira mayor Conrad Borg Manché disagrees with. “Any sort of construction or removal of walls requires a planning permit – partly so residents fully understand what’s happening,” he said. “Authorities have to set an example for the rest of the population; they are not above the law.”
Expressing his incredulity at the residents receiving an unsigned letter informing them the case was closed, Borg Manché called it “crazy” and said it set a worrying precedent.
“This case is closed? How can someone inform residents of this without signing the letter? Who the hell are you to do this? It’s crazy and unethical,” he said.
Commenting on PAMA’s inclusion on the joint declaration last month, Borg Manché said it showed authorities were too close to big business, calling it “typical of the situation in this country.”
The Gżira mayor said a judicial protest would follow last Wednesday’s legal letter if authorities ignored the residents’ demands.
Lawyer and Gżira mayor Conrad Borg Manché said authorities were “not above the law.”