An environmental NGO’s push to nullify an environmental impact assessment for the Manoel Island project received a boost on Tuesday, when a tribunal ruled that a conflict of interest argument made by the NGO merited consideration. 

Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar is seeking to nullify two planning permits concerning the large-scale Gżira project. One of the permits concerns excavation at the site while the other is for a masterplan for the area. Both permits relied on the same environmental impact assessment.

The NGO believes that the EIA was tainted by a conflict of interest, as one of the experts who helped draft it, architect Edward Said, is the son of a director at the company responsible for the Manoel Island project, Midi plc.

In its submission to the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal, the NGO also argued that Mr Said’s firm Architecture XV had been engaged by Midi plc “repeatedly” on various permits related to the Manoel Island project.

“As one of Midi’s responsible architects he should be automatically precluded from participation in the Environment Impact Assessment,” FAA said.

MIDI plans to develop apartments, shops and a hotel on Manoel Island. Opponents to the project have filed an appeal against that development, though in July the Planning Authority gave the go-ahead for excavation works to get under way.

On Tuesday, the tribunal considered the NGO’s conflict of interest plea as well as arguments presented by Midi plc and the Planning Authority, which both argued that the NGO’s complaint came too late in the process to merit consideration.

The tribunal decided that the NGO’s plea should be included in its appeal arguments against the project and said that there were grounds to ask the Environment and Resources Authority, which regulates EIA reports, to answer questions about the issue.

Read the tribunal's decree in the PDF below.