145 Enforcement Notices Issued Against 1,822 Cases Of Illegal Development In Malta In 2020

The Planning Authority (PA) investigated 1,822 cases of illegal development during 2020, issuing 145 enforcement notices in the process, the authority said today. 

The PA said in a statement this morning that it received 3,313 complaints in 2020, of which 55% were found to have been related to illegal development. 

“The directorate was compelled to issue 145 enforcement notices resulting from these complaints received, whilst 45% of the contraveners themselves complied or removed the illegalities before further action was taken,” the PA said. 

In the remaining 858 cases, contraveners applied to have their illegal development sanctioned after it was already constructed. 

In its statement, the PA said that it had closed a number of illegal development cases in the past weeks, adding that its officers had “intervened and put pressure on contraveners” to remove their illegal development or face further action. 

The authority said that it had cleared four sites in San Pawl il-Baħar, ir-Rabat and Haż-Żabbar, which it said were being used for the illegal dumping of scrapped vehicles, containers, construction waste, as well as for storing “truck and boats” without the necessary permits. 

All four sites have been cleared and have had their original use reinstated, the authority said. 

Similarly, another site in Gozo – an agricultural site in Għajnsielem – which was being used as an illegal parking area for commercial vehicles has been cleared by the PA. 

“Several rooms and structures at a multitude of sites, in Malta and Gozo, which were built without development permission on arable land were demolished by the respective contraveners and the sites are now being used again for agricultural purposes,” the PA added. 

Finally, the PA said it had also obliged one particular individual, who had built, “in an unconventional manner, a lengthy stretch of rubble wall along the countryside in the outskirts of Għajnsielem”, to dismantle the wall and reconstruct it as a traditional Maltese rubble wall. 

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