Xemxija site - Polidano to be charged
Mark Micallef
Contractor Charles Polidano is expected to be charged next week in connection with illegal excavations carried out on his land in Xemxija, The Times has learnt.
Earlier this month the Malta Environment and Planning Authority said it would be asking the police to institute "urgent criminal proceedings" against Polidano Brothers for failure to comply with an order to rehabilitate its illegally excavated site in Xemxija. Mr Polidano is the managing director.
Mepa had ordered a complete rehabilitation of the site last April following an inquiry led by the authority's own audit officer.
However, last month The Times revealed that no rehabilitation was being carried out.
Mepa then said it would be asking the police to take action. Police sources yesterday confirmed that they had received a letter to prosecute and said the charges had been formulated.
The case will be presented in court next week along with a number of other environmental cases, the sources said.
The illegal excavations at the site had made the area unstable and a mudslide in January left a neighbouring house jutting out perilously after a section of earth beneath its foundations gave way.
In its conclusions the audit report found the authority indirectly responsible for what happened, pointing out that it had left the developer to do as he pleased at the site, which was excavated illegally over a stretch of about six years.
In the meantime, the police are continuing with investigations against the same developer in conjunction with the dumping of construction waste at sea from the Freeport.
Mepa says the activity was not covered by a permit. However, the developer denies this, insisting that the dumping operation was completely legitimate.
MEPA stops Xemxija illegal works
XEMXIJA, Malta (di-ve news) -- August 31 2006 -- 1300CEST --
Development works have been stopped by MEPA on site at Xemxija which was the subject of an inquiry earlier this year chaired by MEPA's Audit Officer.
MEPA has also requested the Police to institute urgent criminal proceedings against the applicant for having failed to secure compliance with the enforcement notice issued in 2004.
This action followed constant monitoring of the site by enforcement officers. Development works including excavations had resumed last Tuesday on a part of the site, which is also covered by an enforcement notice.
Moreover, an official Stop Notice is being served on co-owner of part of the site, since works were in breach of condition 2 in approved permit PA 4242/01. This condition specified a method statement dated 17 February 2004, which excluded the carrying out of excavation works before structural piles are put in place.
Excavation works were also assessed to be in conflict with the method statement related to emergency remedial works for the removal of danger, dated 3 February 2006.
The latter Stop Notice, together with continuous monitoring of works and other actions by MEPA, will ensure that no works, other than the approved method statement to stabilise and mitigate the existing dangerous situation on site, are carried out before other works are taken in hand.
Moreover, the access to carry out the approved remedial works as proposed by the developer's architect and approved on 6 February 2006 in terms of L.N. 258 of 2002 shall be secured.
Prior to the completion of the stabilisation works, in terms of the submitted and approved method statement for the removal of danger, no other works, even those approved in PA 4242/01, shall be permitted.
MEPA is also requesting the Police to institute urgent criminal proceedings against the applicant for having failed to secure compliance with the enforcement notice issued in 2004.
Marinas galore
The latest report by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) focuses on Europe's coast. Malta (along with Lithuania and Belgium) is listed as having an extremely high settlement density on short coastlines.
In a case study within the report on the 'Impacts of Marinas on the European Coast', it is stated that "marinas are developing in new member states, like Malta and Croatia", that "marinas have a serious negative impact on the environment due to the consumption of land, degradation of shallow coastal water, disturbance of the dynamics of coastal currents and chemical pollution", and that "boating also has major implications for the terrestrial coast as infrastructures are built to keep boats out of water".
Against this backdrop, try harmonising the fact that our government is planning at least two new yacht marinas (one in Marsascala and a gargantuan one in Xemxija) and is silent about a third proposed one at Hondoq ir-Rummien in Gozo. Labour's position is, as usual, ambiguous and equivocal - on one hand you have Roderick Galdes, MP, lambasting the project, and on the other you have opposition leader Alfred Sant attacking the developers for also planning luxury residences instead of just the hotel and yacht marina.
The authorities (especially the Malta Maritime Authority) should publish its plans for Xemxija yacht marina, especially when these appear to impinge on Fekruna Bay
It is only when such absurd applications as the Hondoq one are refuted that we can say that the rationalisation exercise was worth the sacrifice. This acumen was aptly distilled in a letter by Edward Camilleri (The Times, August 10), who asks:
"Can the authorities illuminate us on how the issue of development in Hondoq ir-Rummien is going to be decided when the area, besides being Outside Development Zone, is outside the limits for development established lately during the rationalisation of development boundaries exercise conducted by Parliament, which is binding for the next 10 years?"
deidunfever@yahoo.co.uk
Local Plans open flood gates for further development
On August 3, a few days before the mid-summer holiday lull and only a month after parliament extended the development boundaries Minister George Pullicino approved five local plans with the set aim at regulating development both on a regional and locality level.
The plans had been approved by MEPA as early as 18 July, barely a few days after parliament had approved the new boundaries.
The local plans pave the way for mega-projects outside existing development schemes such as in Ta’ Cenc and Hondoq ir-Rummien.
The plans also identify a number of sites in Gozo and Comino including the Blue Lagoon for development as destination ports for the mooring of yachts.
Large-scale tourist projects in Xemxija, Mistra village and Ghajn Tuffieha are also earmarked.
Height limitations in various localities like Sliema have been increased. The controversial Qui-Si-Sana car park which is also set to host tourist related development is also endorsed by the plan.
The very short time lapse between the approval of local plans and the approval of the new boundaries raises the question on why the government had decided to intervene in the planning process, rather than wait a few weeks for the finalisation of the local plans by MEPA.
Xemija development
The North West Local Plan encourages MEPA to “favourably consider” development on the Fekruna restaurant site at Xemxija. The site was subject to intense controversy in 1994 when Green Party activists broke a fence to reclaim the public foreshore from the developers.
This site earmarked for development has an area of 1,200 square meters and is located at the northern tip of the bay and highly visible from distant views against the background of boulder screes scheduled for their ecological and landscape value. It bounds the secluded Dahlet il-Fekruna, which gives the name to the establishment located on the site.
The site is not only earmarked for restaurant development, leisure and beach amenities and retail but also for class 1 dwellings provided the gross floor space does not exceed one third of the total allowable floor space on the site and they do not prejudice the primary commercial uses.
“Some residential units may be accepted if they are separated from the leisure uses and adequate mitigation measures to ensure compatibility are included,” states the plan.
The height of any new structure in Fekruna is not allowed to exceed the height of the existing building and should not encroach on the coast beyond the existing built and roofed over footprint.
The local plan acknowledges that public access to the coast around this site has created major concerns in the past and it commits MEPA to ensure that any new development does not compromise access to the coast.
A present application to redevelop the site into a multi-storey block of residential apartments is still pending.
MEPA also acknowledges that the high visibility and prominence of the site requires particular attention to the design of any new scheme.
Xemxija has also been identified as a potential site for a yacht marina. But according to the plan this development is not likely to happen in the medium term and may well be beyond the life of this Local Plan. But in anticipation of this major development, the Local Plan aims at providing an appropriate planning framework. A site located on the western end of the urban area of Xemxija and currently occupied by the Porto Azzurro tourism development is also earmarked for tourist development spread on three detached blocks.
The plan also foresees the redevelopment of the Mistra Village site in to a residential neighborhood. Through the application of the floor area ratio, building heights in the new village could rise to as much as eight floors.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
AD comments on Xemxija inquiry report
Addressing a Press Conference at the Xemxija By-pass Dr Harry Vassallo, Chairperson of Alternattiva Demoktratika - The Green Party (AD) said that he was pleasantly surprised by the frankness and the thoroughness of the report produced by the Board of Inquiry appointed to investigate the mudslide which occurred at Xemxija last January.
"We have awaited such an official pronouncement for many years and had given up hope that anything of the sort would ever be made," Dr Vassallo said. "None of the report contents are a surprise except for the specific statistics of the case in question but to have them so clearly articulated at long last is a cause for celebration," he added.
"It is now no longer an allegation made by us that MEPA has been weak with the strong and strong with the weak. The facts are there for all to see," Dr Vassallo continued. "MEPA (Malta Environment and Planning Authority) has failed to use the powers of enforcement at its disposal to such an extent that it can justifiably be considered to have invited further infringements and thereby became responsible for the irremediable damage caused over many years," he asserted. 'The fact that one developer accumulated 82 enforcement and stop notices and blissfully ignored them for years is bad enough. That MEPA was not moved to do something about such a situation until a near catastrophe occurred is worse," Dr Vassallo said.
Polidano’s partners clinch contract for Xemxija Road
The business partners of Polidano Brothers, the company responsible for illegal excavation works in Xemxija Road that led to its collapse in a mudslide in January, have clinched a EUR6 million (Lm2.6 million) contract for the reconstruction of the same road which collapsed in a mudslide in January.
Alsfaltar Ltd, a shareholder along with Polidano Brothers in the companies Roads Group International Ltd and Bitumen Distribution Ltd, will be carrying out the works.
Polidano’s illegal works in Xemxija had triggered an inquiry ordered by the Environment Minister which was highly critical of the approach taken by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority saying “it (MEPA) had left the developers to do as they please.”
Ironically, it will be a business partner of Polidano Brothers to reconstruct the road.
The contract for the reconstruction of the 2.7km long St Paul’s Bay bypass was awarded to Asfaltar in February.
Charles Polidano and Asfaltar’s Joe Magro are the sole directors as well as shareholders of Bitumen Supplies Limited. Together with Hector Camilleri, they are also directors of Bitumen Import Company Limited.
Polidano Brothers has also teamed up with Asfaltar Ltd and Gatt Brothers in a consortium to clinch the tender for the reconstruction of Civil Aviation Avenue in Luqa which was also signed in February.
The close connections between the company awarded the contract for the Xemxija Road and Polidano, were not taken in consideration when the contract was awarded.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Finance insisted that in the tender for the reconstruction and upgrading of St Paul's Bay By Pass, Asfaltar Ltd “tendered in its own name” and therefore the companies co-owned by the Polidano and Asfaltar “were not considered in the evaluation of the offer by Asfaltar Ltd.”
The ministry’s spokesperson would not answer whether any specifications were included in the contract to ensure that Polidano Brothers Ltd is not involved in the said works through engines or materials used in the project.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Roads would not comment on this issue claiming that the “adjudication process and the awarding of the said contract were not handled by the Ministry for Urban Development and Roads.”
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
MEPA is 'Impotent' with Big Developers
Developers Polidano Brothers were left to do as they pleased at their Xemxija site prior to January's mudslide, the inquiry report into the incident has concluded, adding that the planning authority is "impotent" when it comes to controlling big developers.
In frank language, the report, commissioned by Environment Minister George Pullicino some two months ago, notes that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority is indirectly responsible for what happened on the site.
The inquiry was ordered after The Times reported that excavations taking place at the site adjacent to the St Paul's Bay bypass had caused a mudslide which left part of a building sticking out dangerously in mid-air.
This newspaper revealed that the works on site were illegal and that the developer had ignored enforcement notices to stop the works.
"In practice, the developer was left to do as he pleases, despite the fact that he is known for such behaviour, as becomes clear from the testimony given by the planning director," the inquiry board concludes.
"...Mepa is guilty in this regard because it sanctioned illegal projects by the same developer to avoid taking different actions which could have been more difficult."
The 45-page report was issued late in the afternoon yesterday along with a government statement acknowledging the findings of the inquiry and pointing out that a number of its recommendations were already being tackled through a reform of Mepa already underway.
The findings confirm the facts about the case as reported in The Times in January. Besides highlighting Mepa's shortcomings, however, the report also makes a number of radical recommendations aimed at tightening enforcement and imposing heavier penalties for contraventions of planning laws.
The authority is criticised for only using the stop notice as its tool to halt illegal excavations. This is a method which, although used consistently, has proved ineffective, the report points out.
The developer, in fact, would stop when told to do so by enforcement officers after being caught working on the site illegally, only to carry on a few days or weeks later.
"The notices issued were always for him to stop. Never was he notified to bring the site back to the way it was before the excavations."
Using this method, the board of inquiry notes, the developer managed to excavate the whole site.
On the extent of the excavations, it says: "The board cannot not show its concern at the fact that the developer was left to do this kind of environmental damage."
The board's recommendations are equally unequivocal. The developer should be made to rehabilitate the area as far as possible but only after submitting a detailed method statement to Mepa of how this will be done.
The pending application to build apartments and a structure which would shore up the site, submitted after the illegal excavations first started, should be decided upon as soon as possible under the present regulatory regime.
Finally, the authority is told to use all the clout afforded to it by law, including the confiscation and sale by auction of the developer's equipment, if he even "dares" carry on with illegal works in Xemxija.
From a wider perspective, the report calls for the immediate introduction of an amendment to the law which would raise the maximum possible fine for breach of planning laws to Lm10,000 from Lm1,000 and recommends that this should eventually be raised to Lm250,000 for major projects. It suggests that if the illegal development is carried out in the name of a company, the courts should have the power to force its liquidation and that directors should be held personally responsible for illegal building developments carried out in the name of their company.
When it comes to Mepa, besides revisions to current regulation, the inquiry also calls for increased accountability of the planning directorate. Especially when it comes to enforcement, the directorate should be consistent in the treatment of all applications, the report says.
A body should be set up to survey the work of the directorate when it comes to the enforcement of the law to ensure that everything is being done above board.
The board was headed by Mepa auditor Joe Falzon, with Victor Torpiano (Mepa director), Kevin Aquilina, Kevin Gatt and Peter Zammit as members.
Mark Micallef
Times of Malta - 11th April 2006
Government to move ahead with Xemxija Marina Development Brief
Date: 12/10/2004 - Issued On: 12/10/2004
The Minister for Competitiveness and Communications the Hon. Censu Galea, together with Dr Marc Bonello and Mr Oscar Borg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Malta Maritime Authority respectively, yesterday met with the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority to discuss the proposed yacht marina project in Xemxija Bay. MEPA was represented by Mr Andrew Calleja, Chairman, Dr. Godwin Cassar, Director General and Mr Christopher Borg, Director for Development Planning.
During the meeting various issues pertinent to the project were discussed before an official application is submitted to MEPA. This was done within the context if a report which had been commissioned by the Planning Authority, which had identified Xemxija Bay as a potential site for the development of a yacht marina in the northern area of Malta.
For this purpose a working group has been set-up between the Malta Maritime Authority and the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority, to enabling coordination on relevant issues and to ensure that the area retrieves the best social and economic benefits from the project.
Following this exercise, the Malta Maritime Authority will be publishing a development brief which will be followed by an official application for development.
This project has been identified by Government due to the high demand for yacht marinas berths, both by locals and foreigners visiting the country, the latter giving an added value to the tourism market. The development of a yacht marina in the northern area, besides being a new attraction for boat and yacht owners, and equipped with modern facilities for their use, will be an additional contribution to the country’s economy. Moreover this development will be also positively affecting an economic and social regeneration within the area.
WWF issues strong warning on tuna farming
- blue fin stock faces utter decimation
By David Lindsay
Tuna penning has long been a thorny subject in Malta, with concern about the practice peaking recently following a controversial decision to allow the St Paul’s bay venture to expand.
And just last week, tuna farming made the international news, when the World Wildlife Fund warned that the mushrooming in this line of business was seriously depleting the Mediterranean’s stock of blue fin tuna.
On a local level, environmentalists have long expressed worries that the repercussions of the increasing number of tuna farms being set up around Malta are not being taken on board. Their proximity to the shore and the amount of waste they produce are two of the main concerns, coupled with a fear that commercial interests might be favoured over environmental safeguards, as more ventures are given the go-ahead.
Now the head of the WWF’s Mediterranean marine unit has added a different slant to the controversial method of fish farming.
"If nothing is done, wild blue-fin tuna will completely disappear from the Mediterranean within the next years," Paolo Guglielmi warned.
According to the WWF a rise in the popularity of sushi has sparked the crisis, resulting in a "gold rush" in the region.
The WWF explains that Japanese-style sushi restaurants serving the raw fish dish have surfaced in several European cities and even in many small towns over recent years, as the market responds to diners looking to globalise their gastronomic experiences.
The WWF said that the 12 operating Mediterranean tuna farms produced 11,000 tons of tuna last year, compared to an almost negligible amount five years ago. It added that that many of the fish caught for the farms were juveniles and that the practice effectively endangers the species’ reproduction in the wild. Most of the catch is fattened and exported, primarily to Japan, for sushi production
However, as the fish are not killed immediately, but kept alive in cages before being slaughtered and exported, the practice falls outside the jurisdiction of Mediterranean management bodies.
"This so-called tuna farming avoids every regional and international rule set-up to conserve and manage the fishery," commented Simon Cripps, director of WWF's Endangered Seas Program.
He adds, "Governments must urgently take action to close yet another loophole within European fisheries management and step up controls on this growing practice while there is still time."
The WWF urged Mediterranean and European Union governments to cut the fishing effort and to regulate the relatively new trade when reforming the Common Fisheries Policy later this year.
Apart from Malta tuna farms are found in Spain, Italy and Croatia, although countries like France own fleets which supply a large proportion of the tuna.
Mediterranean fish at risk of exotic viruses
4 May 2005 Brussels, Belgium – Mediterranean wild fish are exposed to exotic viruses because of huge quantities of imported feed-fish used in tuna farming, says a report launched today by WWF. The global conservation organization is therefore asking the EU to urgently ban the use of non-Mediterranean fish as feed in tuna farming.
The report shows that during their captivity, which lasts about six months, tunas are fed on large quantities of feed-fish. Most of it consists of imported frozen, untreated fish from other regions (West Africa, the North Atlantic, and North and South America) and involves non-Mediterranean species such as herring or capelin.
As a result, as much as 225,000 tonnes of feed-fish – most of them alien to the region – are used annually by tuna farms in the Mediterranean, a higher number than the area’s annual catch of sardines. This could lead to the introduction of new viruses that might affect the whole Mediterranean ecosystem.
“Dumping of imported feed-fish into the Mediterranean tuna farms must stop immediately. It threatens both the health of local fish populations and ecosystems and the livelihoods of fishermen that rely on them,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Fisheries Coordinator with WWF's Mediterranean Programme Office.
With Spain, Malta, Italy, Greece, and Cyprus accounting for 71 per cent of the officially declared tuna farming activity in the Mediterranean, the problem is mainly European and the EU has the responsibility to halt the threats.
The WWF report highlights the case of alien feed-fish imports dumped by tuna farms in Australia in the 1990s. Massive imports of small fish from other regions were at the origin of viral epidemics that in 1995 affected 5,000km of coastline and killed 75 per cent of the adult sardine population in Australia.
“The risk of disease transmission is very high. Most fish viruses rely either on direct feeding or proximity to spread, and we set up a classic transmission experiment every time we feed sardines to tuna,” said Dr Brian Jones, fish pathologist with Western Australia’s Department of Fisheries and expert on the Australian case.
“It is technically impossible to analyze regularly frozen feed-fish imports to ensure that they are free from harmful viruses. The only solution is to have a total ban of such practices. In Denmark, use of feed fish in saltwater aquaculture has been banned since 1985. The EU should take the same approach to Mediterranean tuna farms,” added Dr Tudela.
NOTE
Drs Brian Jones and Daniel Gaughan, fish pathologists with Western Australia’s Department of Fisheries, contributed substantially to WWF report.
For further information
Chantal Ménard
Communications Officer, WWF Mediterranean Programme Office
Tel: +39 6 844 97 417
E-mail: cmenard@wwfmedpo.org
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