Labour MP on MEPA board votes for Portomaso extension

Roderick Galdes, the Opposition's representative on the MEPA board, as well as the Labour spokesperson on planning, has voted for the development of 46 villas set on a lagoon located in a zone designated as an ecological area in the original permit for the Portomaso development.

The Portomaso project which was dismissed by MEPA this afternoon, with chairman Austin Walker casting his vote against his project.

Board members Chiara Borg, Christine Pace, Elena Borg Costanzi Joe Vella and Anthony Zammit voted for the Portomaso project.

On the other hand MEPA chairman Austin Walker, deputy chairpersons Sandra Mago and Franco Montesin, Ing. Joseph Farrugia, Dr Philip Manduca and Dr Giovanni Bonello voted against.

MEPA's Planning Directorate had recommended the approval of 46 villas set on a lagoon located in a zone designated as an ecological area in the original permit for the Portomaso development.

But the case officer reveals that in 2009, MEPA's own Forward Planning Unit concluded that since the area is already over developed no development should be allowed on this site.

The case officer report also refers to correspondence in which MEPA's Local Planning Unit states that it remains "unclear" why the site was not scheduled as an ecological zone in the local plan issued in 2006, which instead earmarked the site for developments.

It even cites minutes of MEPA's Executive Committee held on 8 October 2009 which state that "the conditions in the outline and the full development permits for the Portomaso project indicate that the aim of the deciding bodies has been to limit the development to no more than what was approved at the time" and "retain the area outside the wall as free from development."

The planning controversy revolved around a permit condition imposed when the outline permit for the Portomaso development was issued in 1996, which states that "no extensions/enlargements of this development, its individual elements or any related development within or outside the site will be permitted."

In fact following the approval of the Portomaso permit in 1995, the area was sealed off for the protection of important ecological species during project construction and will be opened to the public... any inconvenience is regretted."

The area's "southern ecological zone" was deemed important mainly because of the populations of Sphenopus divaricatus (Wedgefoot Grass) and Anthemis urvilleana (Maltese Sea Chamomile) that were recorded within this zone.

Residents objecting to the project argue that the Development Planning Act states that no development plan can reverse or even modify the terms and conditions of a development permission.

But subsequent ecological surveys have shown that the plant has disappeared from the area.

Despite the intention to designate the area as an ecological zone, the local plan approved in 2006 still designated the area for residential development.

Residents contend that a local plan cannot over rule a permit condition. They also argue that public consultation on the local plans was inadequate. In an email written to MEPA In February 2012 architect Paul Gauci casts doubts on the legality of approving any development on the site. "The North Harbour Local Plan indicates that the part of the Portomaso area earmarked for the proposed project is developable for residential purposes but the condition...  tied to the development permission for the Portomaso Master Plan prohibits any form of physical development in the area earmarked for the proposed project. In other words, there is absolutely no way in which the applied-for permission can be issued lawfully."

Environmental NGOs and Alternattiva Demokratika had objected to the project.