A number of structures, which were built without planning permission, including one in Xlendi, have over the past weeks been removed after Planning Authority compliance and enforcement officers warned contravenors of imminent direct action. Some of the structures date as far back as the early 1980s.
In Xlendi, Gozo, a canopy structure constructed without planning permission outside a restaurant across the waterfront was removed after a planning application to sanction the illegality and an appeal against the enforcement notice were withdrawn.
The Authority said that a daily fine was imposed following the issuing of the enforcement notice. The canopy included illegal signage and the placing of tables and chairs which were also removed.
A rural structure measuring over 120m² and built in the early 1980s, in close proximity to the Hagar Qim Temples, limits of Qrendi, was finally demolished and the site returned back to its original state, the Authority said.
The structure which had been built without planning permission, in this pristine area along Triq il-Kbir, had been served with an enforcement notice in 1999.
On agricultural land in a site off Triq tal-Gharix, limits of Qrendi, a number of other rooms which recently were constructed without planning permission were demolished and the site was reinstated to its previous use.
A number of disused cars and other heavy machinery and vehicles which were left abandoned in a site within Wied il-Ghasel, limits of Mosta, were removed.
The Authority said that the site is part of an area, with more than 1.5km in length, where the Planning Authority had given planning permission for a rehabilitation and upgrading project to be carried out in 2017.
The area starts off from Wied Ghajn Rihana near the Victoria Lines, between Mosta and Bidnija, and extends to the proximity of the Grade 1 Scheduled Chapel, dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, right down in the valley beyond the quarries.
Last year, to tackle the pending caseload of enforcement notices, the Authority said that it “embarked on a strategic approach regarding the old cases.”
“This yielded the desired results since the number of pending enforcement notices was reduced by 61% when compared to the reduction in the number of cases of the previous year,” it said.
“The Compliance & Enforcement Directorate will keep working vigilantly over the coming weeks, not only to monitor that all ongoing development works are being carried out according to approved drawing and conditions of permission but will continue to address old cases where illegal development was carried out and is still not regularised or removed,” the Authority said.