Updated 6.10pm with PA documentation

The Environment and Resources Authority has approved a permit for the uprooting of indigenous trees at an ODZ Żejtun villa owned by Prime Minister Robert Abela. 

The Shift reported on Wednesday that the ERA gave the Abelas the green light to remove up to the 20 mature trees from the property, which they intend to redevelop into a modern villa. 

The ERA permit was approved in March and provides for the uprooted or transplanted of up to 20 trees. According to a landscaping document submitted as part of the project's PA application, the Abelas intend to relocate olive trees to another part of the property.  

The document also indicates that they will be adding new citrus trees while removing some invasive Yucca trees onsite. 

The landscaping document submitted by the Abelas' architect to the PA.

Last September Robert and Lydia Abela filed a planning application to demolish the existing property and rebuild it, now including a basement garage and a pool, as well as reorganising the landscaping. The application was approved by the Planning Authority in February. 

The ERA permit paves the way for works to begin on the property. It was filed by the Abelas' architect, Ray Demicoli. 

An image of the villa as it currently stands. Photo: PA

In March 2022, Times of Malta reported that the Żejtun property owned by Robert and Lydia Abela had been rented out to passport applicants without verifying whether they had ever lived in the controversy-dogged villa. 

Documents showed that the property had been leased to two people from Moscow named Alexey and Natalia, who were at one point registered at the villa’s address.

However, a visit to the villa showed the site in a state of disrepair with little sign it was being lived in. Neighbours additionally reported that they had observed few people visiting the property in recent years and that they considered it abandoned. 

At the time, Abela’s law firm Abela Advocates functioned as agents for applicants of the so-called passport scheme. 

In a Times of Malta interview last November, the prime minister said that he made €1,500 a month in rental income for two years on the villa. 

MaltaToday has previously reported how Abela acquired the property in 2017 under dubious circumstances. 

The villa’s previous owners had faced legal obstacles in selling off the property due to unsanctioned works that had extended its footprint by some 352 square metres outside of the development zone when policy only permitted a maximum floor area of 200 square metres. 

Abela purchased the property for a bargain €600,000 three months after the PA sanctioned all of the unauthorised works. Abela served as the authority’s chief legal counsel at the time. 

The retainer Abela’s law firm was paid by the PA for legal work doubled from €7,300 per month in 2013 to €17,110 in 2019.