Montekristo trade fair refused police permit over MEPA objection

The police have withheld a permit for the holding of the Fiera l-Kbira trade fair at Montekristo Estates, after the Malta Environment and Planning Authority objected to a permit being given, because of enforcement orders on the site at Hal-Farrug.

The objection puts at risk the trade fair, which would host over 230 exhibitors, but its organisers have told MaltaToday they intend going ahead with the 9 July opening date.

MEPA and the police are said to be sticking to their guns on their refusal.

MEPA has said that the trade fair can take place only on the land where there are no planning illegalities, which leaves out a large open space where the fair has to be sited.

But Polidano Bros. chief executive officer Jean Paul Sammut told MaltaToday that the area has been cleared of all illegal structures.

“Since November 2013, Charles Polidano has removed, at his own expense, all illegalities outlined by MEPA chief executive officer Johann Buttigieg, in full cooperation with the law.”

But the enforcement notices on the area in question still stand, among several slapped on the construction tycoon at the flagship Montekristo estates, which also included an illegal car park over a huge tract of land. 

Spread over an area 300,000 square metres, Charles Polidano turned the area into an exhibition space, wedding venue, a zoo, and a winery… but altogether has been hit by numerous enforcements for repeated planning illegalities over the years.

Despite the MEPA refusal, organiser Paul Abela, formerly of the Trade Fairs Exhibitors Association that exhibited at Naxxar, insisted that the Fiera l-Kbira will go on.

“Since 2014, there has been no new enforcement order on the area [Montekristo]. We have all intention of opening the fair this year, as we have the necessary trading licence required by law to hold the fair,” Abela said.

His defiant tone is informed by the fact that other trade fairs have in the past, never conformed 100% with all the necessary licence regulations: even the MFCC at Ta’ Qali remains faced with a pending enforcement sine 2002, for its take-up of an adjacent piece land for the erection of tent space and parking of trailers, without permit.

“If successive governments allowed all these fairs to operate, despite their irregularities, and with both police and MEPA allowing them to operate, then the government should allow this fair to proceed – that’s why we will be going ahead with the fair,” Abela said.

“In no way can I envisage that the authorities will come to the discriminatory position of holding something so beneficial to the economy, from taking place,” he said.

Sources told MaltaToday that MEPA is keen to appear consistent on the permit refusal, when back in October 2014 the police refused a permit for a drifting competition at Montekristo Estates, after MEPA objected.

Back then the King of Europe Malta drifting competition was forced to relocate its event, when MEPA refused a permit in view of a number of pending illegalities that Montekristo Estates had yet to sort out.

The authority had offered the issuance of the permit against a number of conditions, one of them being the closing down of the illegal zoo, which was one of the main attractions at the Fiera l-Kbira held in July 2014.

MEPA had also asked Polidano Bros to remove a number of illegalities that took place following the Fiera l-Kbira event that was allowed to take place that year – reportedly because the police failed to request MEPA’s views on issuing a permit.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was foursquare behind MEPA’s decision: “MEPA was correct in taking the steps it took. You [the media] would have been the first to question how the permit was issued if MEPA had not objected,” he said at the time.

Despite enforcements dealt against him, Polidano has defied MEPA only recently by carrying out finishing works on an office block in Luqa that the authority says is illegal.

The five-storey office block was only partly covered by a permit but Polidano built two additional floors without planning approval. The block is adjacent to Montekristo Estates.

CEO Jean Paul Sammut told MaltaToday that Polidano Bros was alerted to the illegality and agreed with MEPA that it would not carry out any finishing on the additional floors it had built.

The Ombudsman’s Commissioner for Planning, David Pace, had told The Times that if the finishing works formed part of the development applied for, such as apertures, materials, colours to façade, landscaping and so on, then such work cannot proceed if hit by enforcement action.