Din l-Art Helwa said that it has filed an application for the revocation of a permit which sanctioned two penthouses in Sannat in “flagrant disregard of a Court of Appeal judgement which had declared them to be illegal.”
The story started some years ago when an application (PA2035/21) was filed to build 29 apartments, 20 basement garages and a pool in a site in Sannat. DLH said it had fought this all the way to the Courts and in March 2024, the Court agreed that the approved pool and the penthouse floor level should not have been approved, and the permit for this part was revoked.
However, the NGO said, by then both the pool and the penthouses had been constructed and an application to sanction two of the illegal penthouses was filed by a third party.
DLH said it” believes that the sanctioning process was “carried out in a secretive and opaque manner by means of an expedited summary process.”
It argued that “the application contained no reference to the previous permission which had been revoked by the Court. Furthermore, despite the fact that a summary application cannot be processed if the application does not comply with plans and policies, the Planning Authority went ahead and approved the application.”
“The Planning Authority has acted with complete disregard of the rule of law, making itself complicit in rule-breaking and abusive practices. DLH will not turn a blind eye to this flagrant disregard of the law.
“The Planning Authority must be reined in and the individuals responsible for this shameful episode must bear responsibility for their actions” said DLH executive president Patrick Calleja.
Joseph Portelli’s Sannat Penthouses. Photo Credit – The Shift News