Elizabeth Ellul removed from Planning Authority board

Architect Elizabeth Ellul will not be retained on the Planning Board as deputy chairperson of the highest decision-making body on the planning regulator.

The moves comes in the wake of her removal as chairperson of the Planning Authority’s commission that decides planning applications outside development zones, and instead moved into the regularisation board.

But sources told MaltaToday that changes inside the Planning Authority planning commission will go beyond the removal of Ellul as chair.

Ellul had held the post of chair of the planning commission for the past few years. She controversially defended a planning application last year to develop a dilapidated building in Qala’s pristine countryside into a villa with pool.

The application by Gozitan develop Joseph Portelli was eventually withdrawn after public outcry. Ellul had failed to declare a potential conflict of interest during proceedings after it was revealed that her husband, architect Andrew Ellul, represented Portelli on another project.

Environmentalists have often complained of Ellul’s dim view of environmental protection, having been the architect of the PA’s controversial ODZ policy that allows country rooms to be transformed into villas if it can be proved that someone resided there in the past.

The policy opened the floodgates to some ridiculous applications that saw mere mounds of rubble lying in fields, being turned into villas on the strength of an electoral registry entry way back in time that showed the former premises had been lived in.

The ODZ policy is now being revised, but it has been already two years since former minister José Herrera had announced the review of the rules.

The PA was transferred under the wings of Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia from Ian Borg’s portfolio by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

The decision to place the authority in the same portfolio as the environment has given environmentalists hope that planning decisions would be more considerate to the environment.