Planning Authority’s “red-carpet treatment” for Portelli “threatens” Sannat – NGOs

The Planning Authority’s “red-carpet treatment” for Gozitan builder Joseph Portelli “threatens” Sannat, say NGOs.

Twelve organisations are raising serious concerns about the “totally irregular processing” of application (PA/02087/21) which will add 73 apartments to create a `monstrous” 125-unit complex in Sannat.

In a joint statement on Monday, the organisation said that this application will be heard for the second time by the Planning Commission tomorrow at noon, following what the NGOs describe as “the peculiar and unjustified decision” to request review of the application by the Executive Council.

The case officer had recommended this application for refusal, highlighting that this development will “exceed height and massing regulations, counters planning policies, and fails to comply with sanitary regulations,” they said.

The 12 organisations insisted that the Planning Commission was “duty-bound to refuse such an application in the absence of a good reason for accepting it.”

“However, rather than rejecting it, a new stratagem was used – the Planning Commission requested review by the Executive Council, another PA body led by Executive Chairperson Martin Saliba, which should have nothing to do with the review of such applications,” they said.

They went on to say that this is also the third application in a series of “invasive tactics” by Portelli and his business partners which would create an enormous block dominating Sannat.

They explained that, “splitting one development into different applications, under different names, to evade scrutiny and Environmental Impact Assessments, is a tried-and-tested tactic which has already wreaked havoc in other Gozitan villages like Qala.”

The organisations also argued that “to add insult to injury, this third application was entirely based on the presumption that the previous two would be approved before it, changing the conditions of the site to one that is no longer facing ODZ.”

They stated that “illegal works are also being carried out adjacent to this project’s footprint, reaching the Ta’ Cenc cliff edge – a forewarning of another approaching application which might block public access to the beautiful cliffs. Portelli’s enormous development has ‘private landscaped gardens’ advertised with the complex.”

The NGOs claimed that “it is clear that the PA boards are providing red-carpet treatment for Portelli.” Tomorrow, yet another application connected to the same development will be heard by the PA, for the adjustment to an application for 22 apartments on the same site,” they said.

They went on to say, “the case of Portelli’s development in Sannat shows that the deceitful plans which developers devise to generate profit, at the expense of our beloved towns and villages, are becoming ever-more elaborate and shameless. Furthermore, the PA itself continuously allows developers to walk all over its own policies, literally becoming a completely dysfunctional institution.”

The 12 organisations concluded by saying that, “these noxious projects and the underhanded schemes being used by developers and the PA have to stop. Gozo’s gorgeous cliffs and Sannat’s quaint character should be left in peace, not stolen by developers whose sole purpose is to commercialise our land for their profits.”

Organisations

BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Helwa, Din l-Art Helwa Ghawdex, Extinction Rebellion Malta, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, Ghawdix, Moviment Graffitti, Nature Trust Malta, Rota, The Archaeological Society Malta and Wirt Ghawdex.