Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1080741
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 FEBRUARY 2019 NEWS MITA noti es that o ers will be received for: INVITATION TO TENDER Provision of Ophthalmological Services - T003/19 Issued on: 21/01/2019 / Closing on: 28/02/2019 The above tender is obtainable from the Electronic Public Procurement System (http://www.etenders.gov.mt) For further information, contact the Finance and Contracts Department on telephone number 21234710 http://www.mita.gov.mt MATTHEW AGIUS THE Administrative Review Tribunal has declared null a decision by the Lands Author- ity to remove a number of out- door chairs and tables belong- ing to Valletta's Café Cordina, and accord them to neighbour- ing Café Kingsway. The tribunal sent the case back to the Lands Authority for review. The case was filed in July 2018 by John Cordina, who argued that the Authority's decision to amend an encroachment granted to him in Republic Square, for Kingsway to have its own outdoor seating area, was unreasonable, unjust and based on illegal considerations. Cordina owns the iconic Val- letta café in Republic Street, which has been leasing the 805sq.m property from the government since 1946. The placing of tables and chairs outdoors in Pjazza Re- gina is regulated by a 2016 pol- icy document on public open spaces. Cordina has an encroachment of three quarters of the square, with the remaining quarter be- longing to Eddie's Café. But a new café, Kingsway – owned by the former Piccinino store owner Matthew Piccinino – requested its own encroach- ment from the Lands Author- ity when it opened last year. So the Authority took some space from both allocations, and gave it to Kingsway. But before the V18 celebra- tions in 2018, the owners of Ca- fé Cordina spent over €250,000 to upgrade the whole square, passing electricity cables and water pipes underground, as well as installing electricity substations. Cordina was un- happy that his table spaces had been taken away from him and given to a competitor. He argued that the decision to do so was taken solely to placate the owner of King- sway, who had already had his request upheld when Cordina protested the decision with the Lands Authority. So Cordina filed an appeal before the Ad- ministrative Review Tribunal. Magistrate Charmaine Galea, presiding the Administrative Review Tribunal, observed that the issue was whether the au- thority had acted reasonably and justly when it reallocated the existing encroachments. Cordina insisted that the cal- culations made by the Author- ity were wrong and didn't do justice to the size of his estab- lishment and his legitimate ex- pectations. On its part, the Au- thority said that the allocations were made on the basis of an objective calculation based on the internal and façade dimen- sions of every establishment. The magistrate observed that Café Cordina had nearly 12 times the internal space of Kingsway Café, while its al- located seated encroachment was only five times the size of Kingsway's own outdoor allo- cation. The Tribunal was of the opin- ion that the Authority's deci- sion was not reasonable when in its calculations for the num- ber of outdoor covers, it gave a weighting of 40% to the façade sizes of the cafés. "The taking of the façade as a determin- ing factor is not just because the internal space is more rel- evant when one comes to see how much area to allocate the outside. It is unjust that a shop with four tables inside is given an allocation of a considerable number of tables outside," the magistrate said. The Tribunal made it clear, however, that it did not agree that Cordina could vaunt a le- gitimate expectation based on an encroachment which by its very nature was not perpetual. It was true that Cordina had made a significant outlay to set up electricity and water to his outside tables and had repaved the entire square as a result, but it doesn't emerge that the Lands Authority had bound it- self that the concession would be permanent. The Tribunal ruled that the appealed decision should be reviewed and invited the au- thority to carry out an exercise measuring the internal seating area of the establishment and the reallocation of external seating according to the inter- nal seating area. This would create a balance between how many covers an establishment has inside and what could be allocated on the outside, it said. magius@mediatoday.com.mt Valletta cafés battle it out over unjust allocation of outdoor table space Kingsway (right) has a few covers inside its small café, but was granted an encroachment into Café Cordina's space in Pjazza Regina (pictured ahead) Dingli college's sports complex 'excessive and unjustifiable' JAMES DEBONO A proposed sports complex around the St Nicholas School in Dingli, which is set to oc- cupy 22,000sq.m of agricul- tural land, has been described as "excessive and unjustifiable" by the Environment and Re- sources authority. The site includes numerous trees, some of which are pro- tected, and the majority of the fields in the area are still being cultivated. "The construction of the sports facility would lead to the loss of valuable agricul- tural land and further inten- sify the presence of built struc- tures in this ODZ site resulting in the loss of rural character of the area," the ERA said. The authority questioned the justification of the new sports complex due to the other sport complex facilities already pre- sent in the vicinity of the site, including the St Nicholas pri- mary school, Savio Collage, the Dingli Swallows football ground, and the Ta' Qali na- tional stadium itself. The Environment Protection Directorate – ERA's predeces- sor – had already expressed its concern on the development of the existing school which was approved in 2016. One of its main concerns was the "overall incompatibility with the rural character of the ar- ea". In addition, the EPD had already expressed concern on pressures for further com- mitment of sites beyond the school's boundary in form of extensions, parking facilities and playgrounds. The facilities will cater both for the school and the wider community, a spokesperson for the government's Founda- tion for Tomorrow's Schools told MaltaToday last month. Students attending this school already have access to limited sports facilities con- sisting of an outdoor sports ground and an indoor space used for physical education lessons. The new school facilities will include a sports hall with an inside court which can be used for various sports disci- plines, an indoor swimming pool for waterpolo, two bas- ketball courts, two five-a-side football pitches and a 200m athletics track. The proposed extension also includes offices built over 520sq.m. The environmental impact of the new development will be mitigated by reconstruct- ing random rubble walls and the landscaping of the sur- rounding area through the planting of a number of indig- enous trees and shrubs. St Nicholas College receives 650 children from the locali- ties across Attard, Mgarr, Ra- bat and Dingli. The school itself had been approved in 2015, instead of an already existing old build- ing.