MEPA concludes several pending enforcement cases in Gozo & Malta

Over the past days the MEPA said that managed to conclude a number of pending enforcement cases after it had notified a number of contravenors with a final warning prior to imminent direct action from its end.

In Dwejra Gozo, two contranvenors, who in 2000 and 2011 built illegal boathouses respectively, opted to remove the entire illegality themselves after the Authority warned them that direct action was at hand.

The Authortiy said that one of the buildings was a completed two storey boathouse while the other one storey boathouse was left unroofed after the owner had been served with an Enforcement Notice. In the latter, the stones and concrete platform will be removed once the terrain becomes drier since driving to this particular site with a mechanical vehicle will negatively affect the adjacent watercourse.

“In Ghajnsielem, enforcement officers caught red-handed, a contractor who was dumping building material on a site known as ic-Cens Ta’ Katkut. Enforcement officers gave the contractor two days to return the site to its original state otherwise he would have to the face the consequence of his actions. The contravenor followed instructions and complied by removing all the dumped material from the site,” MEPA said.

MEPA’s Enforcement Directorate carried out a direct action operation and demolished a large extension that was illegally built a number of years ago to adjoin a Grade 1 scheduled windmill in Triq il-Mithna in Zurrieq.

The Authority said that the extension was built to increase the residential floorspace for the habitants living in the protected windmill. “Although works had stopped when the Authority had issued an Enforcement Notice, leaving the extension without a roof, the occupant never demolished the structure.”

Due to the sensitivity of the site, all the demolition works during the direct action were carried out manually.

MEPA said that large quantities of material have started being removed from two very large illegal scrapyards in Wardija and Mgarr.

In Wardija, in the area of Ras il-Wied, the contravenor started removing tons of illegal deposited vehicles and scrap material from a series of agricultural fields. Once this operation is concluded the contravenor will also have to restore and rebuild a number of rubble walls which he removed.

In the coming days the Authority said that it will continue with its enforcement action with its priority being that of tackling illegal development in environmentally and heritage sensitive areas