A group of residents have filed a judicial protest against the Planning Authority urging it to take enforcement action over the opening of a new access road from PAMA supermarket into their residential area. 

The frustration of residents of the tad-Daqqaq area in Mosta came to light in March, when residents raised concerns that they were not consulted on the opening of the access road formed through Triq il-Waqqafa. 

While authorities maintain that this was a temporary measure to allow access to the supermarket while roadworks are being carried out in Triq Pantar and that the temporary access will be closed off once works are concluded, residents insist that the formation of this access was carried out irregularly. 

In the protest, residents say that the law requires an exhaustive analysis that goes beyond temporary requirements and must also take into account any increase in traffic in sensitive areas.

The residents claimed that, according to an unsigned email they received from the PA’s enforcement directorate on March 8, the works in question fall under a class 3 development notification order, which suggested that such development was permissible and that the case was closed. 

This reply, they said, was not only inadequate but intentionally mistakes the essence of the development in question.

This is because it ignores the fact that a class 3 DNO limits works to the “formation, preparation, alteration or betterment of roads by the government, local council or any entities engaged by them” and excludes any temporary measures that change the environment and form new transition roads. Such works, they continued, would fall under a class 10 DNO and cannot be carried out without the necessary permits. 

Residents said they were protesting the formation of the access road because it is “not authorised and illegal” and consequently affecting the safety and security they once previously enjoyed in their homes. 

The lack of a planning permit forbids all temporary access and goes against the principles of exemplary conduct, they said. 

In light of this, the residents are urging the PA to take the necessary enforcement action to stop this “unauthorised access” granted to traffic and ensure the return of a boundary wall in Triq il-Waqqafa to its original state, including by reinstalling traffic signals in Tad-Daqqaq and ta’ Milt.

The judicial protest was signed by lawyer Conrad Borg Manche.