Delimara property, once belonging to Dom Mintoff, riddled with irregularities again

The businessman who bought Dom Mintoff’s former Delimara summer home is seeking the Planning Authority’s approval for a newly constructed three-metre high room set over 12 square metres on the roof of ‘l-Gharix’.

The villa, located opposite the Delimara power station, was sold for a mere €250,000 to 33-year-old Fgura businessman Silvio Cassar back in 2014.

A permit for the new dwelling issued in October 2015 allowed Cassar to add a swimming pool and deck to the former Labour premier’s residence, as well as regularised a number of illegally-built rooms built at the back of the building before 1994.

The villa in its entirety was considered legal as it dates back to before 1978, the cut-off date in a policy on rural development that determines whether old buildings are legal or not. But a case officer’s report had also revealed that a number of accretions on the ground and first floors were carried out without a permit. These included the rooms at the back of the building.

Labour MP and architect Charles Buhagiar was then advised by MEPA to include the sanctioning of these past illegalities in the new planning application. A year later, Buhagiar has now presented an application to sanction new irregularities which are in breach of the latest permit.

In a judicial letter filed in January, the new owners asked Mintoff’s heirs to pay €4,942 over planning illegalities and unpaid planning authority contributions. They also claimed that that they had purchased the property on the condition that it was covered by all the necessary permits. 

The permit granted in October 2015 consisted in the demolition of internal walls and rooms, the creation of new openings, the replacement of existing roofs and the demolition of existing stairwells. No objection was expressed by MEPA’s Cultural Heritage Panel to any of these works. The historical importance of the building as the abode of the former Prime Minister was never considered by MEPA when assessing the permit, which effectively puts this dwelling in the real estate market.

During the processing of the application, MEPA’s Environment Protection Directorate also objected to the new swimming pool and deck which would encroach on a level 3 ‘area of ecological importance’ and an ‘area of high landscape value’. 

But the Planning Directorate insisted that the proposal conformed to the existing policy which allows 75 square metre pools within the boundary of existing buildings, as long as these were not located in level 1 and level 2 ‘areas of ecological importance’.