The owner of a Mellieha plot, bounded by a retaining wall that public infrastructure officials have failed to repair after promising to do so 16 months ago, has denounced the “shameful” inaction in court. 

Two years ago plot owner Matthew Said, a professional engineer, noticed that the wall bordering the site on Triq Kepler, upon which he planned to build his future residence, appeared to be bulging onto his property. 

Consequently, in February of 2020, works were carried out under an architect’s surveillance to remove soil along the structure to assess its condition.

The situation was flagged to Infrastructure Malta and the agency dispatched its officials to the site in March 2020.

A few weeks later, they confirmed that the wall did indeed pose a danger and promised to undertake the necessary reconstruction works to rectify the situation.

Yet months later, with the necessary development permits in hand, the plot owner was still in the dark, and a succession of emails to the agency went unanswered. 

He told IM that he was not willing to “wait for eternity,” and wanted to get on with building his projected residence, but received no reaction, explained Said’s lawyer in a judicial protest filed in the First Hall, Civil Court. 

Eventually, the plot owner proceeded with excavation works, incurring additional costs to limit the danger posed to his own property by the defective wall.

Sixteen months since the promised repairs and while construction works are still ongoing, it was indeed “shameful” that IM had done nothing to enable private citizens to “enjoy their property in peace,” the court was told. 

Such works would certainly not cost “millions” and yet months had lapsed and agency officials continued to “take people for a ride,” the lawyer argued.  

Lawyer Victor Scerri, who signed the protest noted that on its website IM “ostentatiously” claimed to have been “entrusted” with the responsibility to oversee “multimillion investments” and other works including “development, reconstruction and maintenance of residential streets and other structures".