The Planning Authority board on Thursday sanctioned illegal developments carried out by magnate Charles Polidano on his concrete batching plant in Ħal-Farruġ as well as an adjacent building that serves as sleeping quarters for foreign employees.
Polidano – known as iċ-Ċaqnu, applied for the sanctioning of a number of developments which included a re-designed head office block, changes to an approved fuel station and a number of other illegalities on the large site occupied by his company on the outskirts of Luqa.
The two separate applications, filed by Polidano in 2010, were given the green light by six in favour and one against in the first application and five in favour and two against in the case of the second application.
In both cases, the Planning Authority’s case officer had recommended that the application be granted against a total fine of almost €33,000 to make up for the illegalities on site, which differed from the originally-approved plans.
The first application sanctioned the bricks production area, also known as hollow core blocks, and the installation of equipment related to the plant operations, enclosures on the external plant storage area and changes to an approved store for the acetylene plant.
An area for aggregate bins and another illegality on areas outside the area of containment will have to be removed and restored to their former state prior to this permit becoming executable.
The second application covered the sanctioning of a number of changes to the company’s head office block. PA board members complained that the height of this office block was beyond what was normally permissible and that it was being accepted solely on the basis of the height of the Lufthansa Technik hangar across the road, which stands at 40 metres in height.
The 19-metre office block is nearly double the 10.5 metre limit for developments inside so-called areas of containment, which are areas outside the development zone earmarked as industrial sites.
However, the PA board heard representatives of the Planning Directorate explain how this 10.5 metre limit had been mentioned in an interim policy document which has since been replaced by the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED), which was approved by parliament in July 2015.
Polidano's justification of the new workers’ quarters was the need for premises to house large, specialised foreign teams that must be brought to Malta to work on the projects for which he tenders. The case officer imposed a condition forbidding permanent residential occupation in the area allocated for a workers’ quarters, which should be operated “as one unit under one management”.
This is not the first illegal structure that Polidano has on his land in Ħal-Farruġ. Last year, Times of Malta revealed how the Planning Authority had halted more illegal works at Montekristo Estates, owned by Polidano, who has already racked up some €700,000 in daily fines on the various illegalities on site.
PA enforcement officers stopped the construction of two towers on either side of the main gate to the complex.
In November 2013, the Planning Authority had descended on the large site in Ħal-Farruġ accompanied by soldiers and police officers. However, the PA’s hope of demolishing the illegalities on site was short lived after Polidano obtained a court injunction to stop the direct action.
At the time, the PA had said that according to its estimates, illegal construction work in the area owned by iċ-Ċaqnu covered around 64,000 square metres of land. It had said that illegalities were covered by enforcement notices, many of which had already been in force for years.