The Gżira council is seeking to annul a decision to relocate a fuel station to a public space, green-lighted by the Planning Authority and confirmed by the review tribunal, chaired by one of the authority’s own employees. 

The council filed a judicial letter against the Planning and Review Tribunal and the State Advocate over a controversial planning application that first came to light in 1999, seeking the relocation of a fuel station from its current site near Manoel Island to Ġnien il-Kunsill tal-Ewropa.

The council had immediately registered an objection, pointing out that the gardens offered locals, “besieged by construction works and continuous development,” an open space for recreation, in a locality were even public passageways and streets were gobbled up by tables and chairs planted outside commercial establishments. 

Plans for the project were rekindled in March 2019, when the planning application was once again put up, with seven days being granted for public consultation, instead of the normal three-week window. 

The Planning Authority green-lighted the application the following July, prompting an appeal by the council to the Panning and Review Tribunal, chaired by Joseph Borg. 

That appeal was thrown out in July 2020. 

Four months later, a report published by Times of Malta said that Borg was and still is a Planning Authority employee while presiding over appeals against the authority, which guarantees his salary and career prospects. 

That information had never been disclosed to the council which would have otherwise called for the chairperson’s recusal, the judicial letter read. 

The chairperson’s conflict of interest impinged upon his “objective impartiality” as well as the tribunal’s independence and impartiality, breaching the council’s fundamental right to a fair hearing. 

The council called upon the tribunal to annul its decision within 10 days, reserving the right to take further legal action and holding the tribunal responsible for all consequences brought about by its unlawful and irregular actions.

Lawyer Claire Bonello signed the judicial letter that was filed before the First Hall, Civil Court on Monday.