Be the first to comment!Moviment Graffiti visits Sannat to highlight “Portelli’s ploy to eliminate footpath”
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On Saturday morning, members of activist group Moviment Graffitti went to Sannat, and visited what it described as the “monstrous building of Joseph Portelli and his partners, to shed light on their upcoming ploy to eliminate part of a pedestrian footpath.”
Today, the activist group said that it highlighting “how Joseph Portelli is now seeking to take over a public path so that the PA can re-issue the permits for the illegal pools.”
Graffitti called on the public to contact them if they had objected to PC/00022/24, between December and January. It is currently “pending assessment.”
The Planning Control Application is “to eliminate part of a pedestrian footpath.” The applicant is Mark Agius, through architect Saviour Micallef. The pedestrian footpath in question lies between the apartment block and two illegal swimming pools in the development.
Last Monday Graffitti issued a video showing how “hundreds of apartments, and ODZ pools, were built without definitive permits in hand.” After the organisations’ legal appeals, substantial parts of this project, including the ODZ pools, were struck down by the Court, it said.
“In Sannat, the Planning Authority (PA) disregarded blatant breaches of planning regulations, especially the construction of pools in Outside Development Zones (ODZ) and penthouses. The Planning Tribunal (EPRT) similarly failed to recognise these violations and upheld the PA’s decisions,” said Graffitti.
It went on to say that, the Court of Appeal ruled that the ODZ pools and the penthouse were “clearly illegal and in breach of established planning policies, thus revoking their permits.”
However, as the group pointed out, “by the time the ruling was delivered, the project had already been completed.”
Graffitti said that Portelli and his associates submitted an application in July 2024 to sanction the penthouses that had just been declared illegal by Malta’s highest court. “In a surreal turn of events, the PA proceeded to approve their sanctioning and reissued the same permit that had been revoked just months earlier.”
Photo: PA site image; video by Moviment Graffitti
