The Planning Authority said that a number of illegal development cases carried out in ODZ areas in Gozo and Malta have been closed off during the past weeks.

This, after officers working within the Planning Authority’s Compliance & Enforcement Directorate intervened and put pressure on the contraveners to remove the illegal development or face further action.

In Gozo, an agricultural site off Triq Borg Gharib, limits of Ghajnsielem, which was illegally being used for the parking of commercial vehicles was cleared out.

Several rooms and structures at sites, in Gozo which were built without development permission on arable land were demolished by the respective contraveners and the sites are now being used again for agricultural purposes.

In Gozo, the sites were in Triq ta’ Hamet and Triq il-Kav. Lorenzo Zammit Haber, Xewkija, and in Triq Guzeppi Grech in Xaghra.The PA said that compliance & enforcement officers also obliged a contravener who built, in an unconventional manner, a lengthy stretch of rubble wall along the countryside, in the outskirts of Ghajnsielem to dismantle the wall and reconstruct the hajt tas-sejjieh using the traditional methodology.

In Malta, four ODZ sites, in Triq il-Wardija, San Pawl il-Bahar, in Sqaq Tac-Cawla and Triq il-Gargir, limits of Rabat (Malta), and a corner site in Triq ix-Xghajra/Triq Agatha Barbara in Zabbar, which were being used for the illegal dumping of scrapped vehicles, containers, construction waste, and the storing trucks and boats without the necessary permissions, were all removed and the sites were reinstated to their original use.

Several rooms and structures at a multitude of sites, in Malta which were built without development permission on arable land were demolished by the respective contraveners and the sites are now being used again for agricultural purposes. These rooms were located at a site off Triq il-Mellieha, Mellieha, in Triq ta’ Hal Farrug, Luqa; in Triq id-Deheb Fin, limits of Qormi, and in an area known as Tax-Xieref in Ghaxaq.

During 2020, the Compliance & Enforcement Directorate received 3,313 complaints from various sources, alleging illegal development.

Following the necessary investigations, in 55% of the cases, the Authority found that illegal development was being carried out.

The Directorate said that it was compelled to issue 145 enforcement notices resulting from these complaints received, whilst in 45% of the cases the contraveners themselves complied or removed the illegalities, before further action being taken.

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