What was once a field outside of the development zone in Siġġiewi has been operating as an illegal truck yard and owes over €10,000 in enforcement fines.
The site in question was once an agricultural field in Triq l-Imqabba, a little further down the road from the Academy for Disciplined Forces at Ta’ Kandja.
For some time, the site has been used as a depot for refuse trucks by Antoine Bartolo, who has declared he owns the land in filings with the Planning Authority.
According to a Yellow Pages listing for his business, Bartolo owns a waste removal business that claims it can guide clients towards a “simple method of waste disposal”. The business also says that it offers skip-hire.
Bartolo’s ODZ land in Siġġiewi appears to be operating as a truck yard for the business illegally, with the Planning Authority having issued an enforcement notice (EC/00170/22) on several illegalities on the site last year.
A spokesperson for the PA confirmed with Times of Malta that the enforcement notice issued on December 2, 2022 subjected the site to daily fines of €50 each day, which in total has accumulated to €10,790.
In its enforcement action, the PA said no permission had been sought to change the land’s use from agricultural to a depot for refuse collection vehicles and “other derelict objects”.
The PA also found that an old rubble wall had also been removed from the back of the site and that the new boundary walls exceeded the allowable height.
The land has also been illegally subdivided and works were carried out that formed a new 4.5-metre concrete access ramp and installed a new metal frame and timber gate at the property’s boundary.
The PA also found that “several mounds” of inert material had been deposited illegally on the site, as well as water tanks and rubbish bins.
Since 2015, Bartolo has been attempting to sanction the illegalities on the site and develop it further.
Bartolo’s ODZ land in Siġġiewi appears to be operating as a truck yard for the business illegally, with the Planning Authority having issued an enforcement notice on several illegalities on the site last year.Bartolo sought to sanction boundary walls in two permits
In two separate permits, PA/03924/15 and PA/08008/18, Bartolo sought to sanction the boundary walls as built and to build an underground water reservoir and pump room.
Despite both these permits being recommended for refusal by the planning directorate case officers, both were originally approved by the planning commission – chaired on both occasions by former PA commission chair Elizabeth Ellul.
However, both of these granted permits were eventually dismissed because, on two separate occasions, Bartolo had failed to comply with the conditions binding him to remove certain illegalities from the site within a specific time frame before any further work could be carried out.
Bartolo has since filed another application on the site, PA/01187/21, this time forgoing any mention of sanctioning in the project description and instead only requesting to excavate and construct a reservoir and pump room, as well as a boundary wall on the east perimeter.
A case officer report on the application, filed in October 2021, has again recommended the application for refusal.
The proposed boundary walls conflict with planning policy as they are too high and would result in land parcels of less than one tumolo, the case officer said.
Additionally, the drawings submitted by the architect do not reflect the actual situation on the site as the proposed walls are already built and the submitted site plans and block plan do not match.
“In this regard, the application is not considered in line with the submission requirements listed in PA circular 4/16,” the case officer said.
The last board meeting discussing this application took place on September 6, 2021, and the planning commission agreed to suspend the application so that the architect could address the reasons for refusal.
At time of writing, the case’s status remains pending, with the application stating only that “a decision on the case still needs to be taken”.