Mellieha residents objecting to proposed chicken farm

The Appeals Tribunal of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority will be deciding on an application for the development of a new chicken farm, underground reservoir, cesspits and manure clamp at Tat-Tomna, Mellieha outside the development boundaries (ODZ).

The Environment Planning Commission refused the original application last month.

The proposed development is located in a rural area across the road (Mellieha ByPass) of the Mellieha Sports Club, primary school and numerous residences.

The applicant, Joseph Gauci, is basing his arguments on the fact that last month an illegal chicken farm – which is also his and has been operating for numerous years, in spite of various enforcement orders – was sanctioned on the basis of the new rural policy approved by MEPA in 2014.

Ironically the permit, approved on 2nd February, covers another site at Tat-Tomna, which also belongs to Gauci, who is now using the regularization of his other illegal farm as an argument for the permit for a larger farm.

The permit was approved despite aerial photos showing that only a small part of the farm existed in 1994. The case officer had recommended a refusal, citing a policy in the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development safeguarding the environmental health of residents from air and noise pollution. The case officer had also expressed his concern that it was not clear whether Gauci wanted to sanction the older farm or whether he wanted to relocate to the new site.

The applicant is arguing that the new rural policy allows for ‘the construction of a new building, or redevelopment of, or an extension to an existing’ poultry farm. However the first criterion of this policy states that the proposal must be ‘located within the boundary of a legally established operational livestock farm’. The objectors argue that the site of this new application falls outside the boundary of the newly approved chicken farm and is therefore not located within the boundary of an operational livestock farm. 

Moreover the proposed new development is larger than the sanctioned farm.

Objectors insist that it is highly illogical that first an illegal development was sanctioned and now on the premise of that, a further much larger development could be given the green light.

The proposed site for the new chicken farm is still free from any development. Furthermore, regulation RO1.3 dictates that new animal and intensive arable farms are to be located within intensive agriculture zones.

The Environment Protection Directorate (EPD) had objected to this application since it proposes to take up natural land and intensify the number of structures within ODZ areas. The EPD expressed concern on the sprawl of development within rural areas and that the attempt to screen the building was not satisfactory. Secondly, the Malta Resources Authority indicated that the site is located within a 200m buffer zone from groundwater sources for human consumption. This clearly violates criterion 5 of policy 2.3B of the Rural policy and Design Guidance 2014, which states that ‘poultry farms shall be located 200m from groundwater abstraction sources’.