The Planning Authority has ordered the applicant of a proposed development in Qala to reinstate a site notice residents reported was missing after an investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman.

The application, PA/04643/23, was filed by Francis Borg and architect Maria Schembri Grima and seeks to excavate the site of a garage and a couple of fields to build nine low-rise houses with garages and swimming pools on either the ground floor or the receded roof storey of each property.

However, residents reported that the appearance of the site notice on the outside of the property was shortlived and went missing from the front of the garage it was initially affixed to, despite the representation period for the application remaining active and open until September 18.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Ombudsman said that, following Times of Malta’s report on the matter, Alan Saliba, the commissioner for the environment and planning, took immediate action by communicating with the Planning Authority. The PA, in response, informed the commissioner that it has issued a letter to the applicant directing him to place a site notice in a location visible from the public road and that photographic evidence should be provided to ensure that this legal requirement is being adhered to.

The Planning Authority made it clear that failure to comply could result in the re-publication of the application

“The Planning Authority made it clear that failure to comply could result in the re-publication of the application, subsequently extending the legislative processing timeframe by six weeks,” the spokesperson said.

Site notices for planning applications are generally affixed by Planning Authority employees and are considered part of the notification process that allows residents to be informed that development is being proposed in a particular site.

In July, the Villa Rosa mega-development had its approved demolition permit revoked and ordered reassessed after it was discovered that there was no evidence that the site notice on one section of the development had been affixed at Cresta Quay.

The application has already attracted a number of objections raising concerns that the scale of the development is not appropriate for the narrow alleyway, saying that the proposed development is too large to be accommodated there and that it would strain infrastructure in the area.