Updated | PA chief insists Paceville consultants had no conflict of interest

The Planning Authority’s executive chairman has vehemently denied that the consultants for the Paceville masterplan had a conflict of interest, after it was revealed that they had informed him of their work on one of the proposed skyscrapers in the region.

Mott McDonald, one of two consultancy firms for the masterplan, had also drafted engineering reports for the Mercury House project, the brainchild of businessman Joseph Portelli – who plans to build two skyscrapers on the 80,000-square-metre-site.

However, Mott MacDonald official Damien Price told MPs at the environment and planning committee that they had verbally informed Buttigieg of their work for Portelli, but were given the go-ahead that it didn’t constitute a conflict of interest.

The committee is chaired by Labour MP Franco Mercieca, who is a 10% shareholder in property development firm Menfi, together with Joseph Portelli, the developer behind the Mercury House.

After a four-hour hearing, in which the masterplan was ripped to shreds by Opposition MPs, businessmen, residents and environmentalist, Buttigieg was called up to make a statement.

“Mott MacDonald weren’t even working for the developer [Joseph Portelli], but for Zaha Hadid,” he said, referring to the global architectural firm that has designed the skyscraper. “Besides, their work was limited to preliminary consultancy with regards the building’s structure and electricity. We asked them whether this consultancy would impinge on the masterplan, and they said that it wouldn’t.”

He added that the PA had entered a clause within its contract with Mott MacDonald and Broadway Malyan – preventing the ubrna planning consultancy firms from working with “any party whatsoever that has anything to do with the plan”.

Parliamentary secretary for planning Deborah Schembri – who had previously said that a foreign consultancy firm was selected specifically to avoid potential conflicts of interest - insisted that she hadn’t been informed of Mott MacDonald’s consultancy work on the Mercury House project until recently.

“There is a distinction between the Planning Authority and the government, and we were only very recently made aware of this potential conflict of interest,” she said.

Buttigieg confirmed that the original request for proposals – that had been sent to Mott MacDonald and nine other urban planning consultancy firms – was for an integrated transport strategy. The PA then gave “further terms of reference” to the two companies that declared interest, and the contract was granted to Mott MacDonald as the only company to submit a proposal.

“We showed them the nine high-rise sites that have been proposed for Paceville, and asked them to find out whether the town’s infrastructure can cater for the amount of development that we are envisaging,” he said.

However, Opposition MPs Marthese Portelli, Ryan Callus and George Pullicino savaged the masterplan, which they said must be instantly scrapped and returned to the drawing board.

In particular, Portelli noted a comment by St George’s Park owner

Peter Paul Testaferrata Moroni Viani, who told the committee a real estate agent had approached him back in April to ask whether he would be interested in purchasing a floor in the proposed Mercury House development.

“This masterplan reflects the exact same information that was present in the Mercury House brief that was presented to me back in April,” he said, tabling the eight-page brief. 

Marthese Portelli said that this proves that the masterplan was drafted to facilitate the interests of a few developers.

“I cannot understand how a supposedly independent authority can do away with declaring a potential conflict of interest,” she said. “It is very clear that what was proposed in the development brief for Mercury House has been fully incorporated in the plan itself.  The government has public land in Paceville that are currently being used as parking spaces, but they will sell these to developers to build towers on.

“This is not fair…Paceville does not only belong to a few people, and this masterplan should return to the drawing board.

Price vehemently denied claims by Opposition MPs George Pullicino, Marthese Portelli and Ryan Callus that Mott MacDonald’s work on Mercury House constituted a conflict of interest. Indeed, he argued that the company’s work on Mercury House had “ceased” before it had submitted their proposal for the masterplan last April. Moreover, it was fellow consultancy firm Broadway Maylan that actually worked on the developmental aspect of the Paceville masterplan, with Mott MacDonald’s work limited to designing a transport strategy.

Price said that the PA had in March e-mailed Mott MacDonald – along with several other firms – to ask whether they would be intereted in working on an integrated transport strategy for the Paceville district. They had a meeting with the Planning Authority in April, around the same time that their work on the Mercury House project had ended, submitted a proposal at the end of the month, and was selected as consultant for the masterplan in early May.

When asked by Pullicino why Mott MacDonald had not included a written disclaimer within the project denying any conflict of interest, Price said that they didn’t feel the need to do so because “we had been given the go-ahead from the PA chairman and his immediate planning staff that everything is OK”.

Mott MacDonald did not receive any legal advice

At one point, Damien Price stunningly revealed that Mott MacDonald did not receive any legal assistance at all when drafting the masterplan.

At one point, TV presenter and St Julian’s resident Moira Delia questioned the consultants whether the proposed development of a 30-storey tower and two other high-rise buildings at Cresta Quay, St George’s Bay is in breach of a new public domain law that forbids development on the first 15 metres of the coastline.

Broadway Malyan official Jeff Nottage first said that his firm was aware of the public domain law, before stating that “I understand your point and we will have to address this”.

George Pullicino took Mott MacDonald to task, saying that its failure to engage a legal consultant to advise them on Maltese law and pending development constraints across Paceville “did not reflect well on the company”.

“With all due respect, you came from the UK to devise a masterplan for one of Malta’s most important sites, and you didn’t even feel the need to have a legal person assist you,” he said.

Even Labour Whip Godfrey Farrugia decried Mott MacDonald’s failure to engage a legal consultant as a “fundamental mistake”.

“I will leave this committee with a heavy heart. The consultants’ brief did not include the laws of Malta, a fundamental mistake that should have been highlighted.”

‘Tower plan designed to mimic Maltese valleys’

Price drew laughs of disbelief from the audience in the packed committee hall, when he said that Mott MacDonald had designed the tower clusters in the masterplan so as to mimic Maltese valleys.

“We decided to go for a spatial plan, with hotel accommodation in the coastal areas, a business hub in the centre, and the rest to be used as residential and mixed-sue development,” he said. “We wanted Paceville to be given an iconic skyline, with the tallest buildings placed inland and the smaller ones on the coastline, so as to ensure maximum views of the sea and to reflect Maltese valleys.”

Residents rip into masterplan: ‘Go back to the drawing board’

During the committee meeting, several residents from Paceville and surrounding areas lined up to criticise the masterplan for ignoring their needs entirely.

Most notably, Paceville resident Carmen Azzopardi warned that the favoured option in the masterplan envisages the destruction of her home – and that of other residents - in Triq Elija Zammit so as to make way for public spaces.

“Why have only peoples’ homes been earmarked for expropriation, and not the businesses or the Intercontinental Hotel in the same street?” she asked.

Price said that the street in question should be widened to accommodate increased traffic flows, while Deborah Schembri insisted that the masterplan was only a draft.

“While the primary interest of planners are things like streets and open spaces, the government only takes into account the interests of residents and businesses,” she said.

Paceville resident Noel Buttigieg Scicluna savaged the masterplan, saying that the government should “black the consultancy firms from ever touching Malta again”.

“How is it possible that a masterplan drafted in the 21st century envisages three towers at Cresta Quay? This will block access to the bay and destroy the view.”

Price responded that the public will still be given access to the waterfront at Cresta Quay, and that a shadow analysis conducted by the firm had concluded that the towers won’t cast shadows on the beach. 

Elsewhere, Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat and councilor Theresa Valentino warned that over-development of Paceville will have harmful spillover effects on their neighbouring town. 

'What emerged in committee was shocking' - AD leader

Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola said that what emerged from the committee meeting was "shocking" and that the masterplan mounted €300,000 thrown to the wind. 

"The consultants were unaware of Malta's highrise laws, of laws regarding Maltese foreshore, of what is private property, what is public property in Paceville...Nobody at the Planning Authority told them anything," he said in a Facebook post. "Moreover, there are big suspicions that someone in the Planning Authority seemed to be pushing the interests of a particular project in Paceville. It stinks..... even Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri was shocked. We need to know the whole truth."