Planning board suspends Manoel Island permit

The Planning Board has suspended a permit issued two years ago for the demolition of a 19th Century building to make way for the MIDI development on Manoel Island.

The board was discussing a request by heritage NGO Flimkien Għall-Ambjent Aħjar to revoke the permit.

But instead of revoking it, the board declared the permit as “non-executable” until a final decision is taken on a new masterplan for Manoel Island.

The permit for the demolition of the building, a quarantine cowshed, and the uprooting of trees had been issued in May 2019. The permit had been issued weeks after the PA confirmed a masterplan for Manoel Island originally approved in 1999.

However, in June 2020 the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal had revoked the permit for the masterplan, which foresaw the development of 610 apartments on Manoel Island.

The permit was revoked because architect Edward Said, one of the experts engaged to conduct the Environment Impact Assessment for MIDI’s masterplan had failed to declare a conflict of interest as the son of one of the directors of MIDI plc – Joe Said, the Lombard Bank chairman.

MIDI was asked to commission a new EIA for the project with the PA having to start the decision making process from scratch.

Subsequently FAA also called for the revocation of the secondary permit for the demolition of the cowshed.

The demolition of the cowshed was favourably recommended in the revoked EIA. The cowshed was located on the site earmarked for a square and two apartment blocks in the masterplan.

Trees were also cut down after ERA issued a nature permit in April 2020 despite the revocation of the masterplan.

Although the 19th century cowshed has already been demolished, FAA considered the revocation of the permit as an important warning to developers not to resort to “fraud”.

According to the FAA the PA’s verdict indicates “a tolerance of fraud which will inevitably encourage other developers to resort to fraud to further their interests”.

The FAA expressed its disappointment that its request to revoke the permit was not accepted. 

“This decision is not satisfactory as all permits issued by the Planning Authority based onthe annulled masterplan are based on a fraud and therefore should be treated as null and void,” the organisation said.