Updated 1.15pm

Carrying flares and spray paint, Moviment Graffitti activists descended on a swimming pool built illegally in the Qala countryside on Saturday.

Their mission was simple: to highlight the “rigged system” planners were perpetuating to help developers exploit planning loopholes.

Led by a megaphone-carrying leader, activists chanted “Mill Qala sas-Sannat, il-liġi għal Allat [From Qala to Sannat, laws are for the Gods] and Tizfnu għad-daqqa tal-izviluppaturi [You dance to the tune of developers] as they marched to the back of the apartment complex.

A demonstrator holds up a flare as police wait in the background. Photo: Jonathan Borg

They then walked into the empty pool, spray cans in hand, and sprayed the word ‘Illegali’ [Illegal] in bright red paint on the pool’s floor. Their activity was interrupted by police officers who reached the scene and ordered activists to leave the scene.

“No police came when this swimming pool was being built illegally,” Moviment Graffitti Andre Callus told an inspector. “So this is vandalism. But destroying the countryside without a permit is not?”

An aerial shot of the site after the protest.

When police threatened to arrest them, activists sat down and continued to chant.

Led by Callus, activists then agreed with police to hand over their personal details as they exited the site when their demonstration ended. 

Activists sat down when ordered to leave the area by the police. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Portelli's illegal pools

The swimming pool is one of two built by Gozitan mega-developer Joseph Portelli some years ago, as part of a massive apartment complex.

Portelli excavated the pool site without a permit. Despite having breached the law, the Planning Authority and its appeals tribunal, the EPRT, both approved the ODZ development.

Objectors persisted and in March, a court revoked the permit the PA had granted Portelli.

But by then Portelli had already built the swimming pool, as planning laws allow developers to proceed with works while appeals processes are ongoing.

In 2023, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that work was underway to reform that procedure to prevent developers from exploiting such loopholes. Despite that pledge and a subsequent consultation period, the law remains in place.

Moviment Graffitti said it wanted the appeals law reformed with immediate effect.

“Communities and organisations are having to bear the burden of appealing the obscene decisions of the PA, only for them to then having to deal with illegal buildings that no authority takes any effective action against,” it said in a statement.

The Qala site, activists said, “shows the tremendous power wielded by the developers in our country and how our planning system is essentially rotten to the core.”

Portelli’s Qala swimming pools are just one example of several such developments constructed illegally.

In May 2023, a court revoked a permit for an eight-storey Portelli hotel in Mellieħa. As in Qala, the hotel had already been built by the time the court issued that judgment.

Other developments in Xewkija and Sannat were also built in a similar, illegal fashion.

Andre Callus speaks to a police officer at the scene. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Similarly, in March 2023 a court declared an ODZ swimming pool which minister Ian Borg built at his Rabat countryside villa illegal. The pool had already been built and remains in place.

Speaking at the Qala site on Saturday, Graffitti activist Andre Callus said the absurdity was “reaching ridiculous levels”.

He noted that the PA’s appeals board, the EPRT, had this week rejected an appeal by residents in Mistra against a massive development at the former Mistra Village site.

The EPRT concluded that the site was now “committed” to development because works had already started.

The pools form part of a sprawling apartment complex, seen above behind the gate. Photo: Jonathan Borg

“It is worth noting that it was the very same tribunal that had allowed the works to continue while the appeal was ongoing!” Callus exclaimed.

“We are convinced that all this is not happening by chance. The environmental destruction that is ravaging Malta and Gozo is deliberate. We have a Government ruled by developers that is more intent on filling their pockets rather than safeguarding our common good and quality of life,” he said.

 Callus said that when faced with such a “rigged system”, activists had little choice but to resort to direct action like Saturday’s.

“This will not end here,” he said.

Portelli: 'They have nothing better to do'

When contacted, Portelli dismissed the protest as the work of "the same hundred people". 

"These people have nothing better to do," he said.