Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1360420
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 APRIL 2021 NEWS POST OF LAWYER WITH THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL The Office of the Attorney General Agency is inviting applications for Lawyer to carry out prosecution and related duties. The selected candidates will be employed on a full-time indefinite term basis, subject to a probation period, and will be required to work for a minimum of forty hours per week. Applicants must be in possession of a warrant to practice the profession of Advocate and, must also have at least one year of experience in the practice of the profession covered by a warrant. Letters of application, including a detailed CV, should be addressed to: The Administration Jobplus Vacancy Nos 367210, Permit Nos. 89/2021 Office of the Attorney General, No. 53, Admiralty House, South Street, Valletta VLT 1101 or emailed to ag@attorneygeneral.mt and should be submitted by not later than Friday 23rd April 2021 at 13:00 hrs. POSTIJIET TA' AVUKAT FL-UFFIĊĊJU TAL-AVUKAT ĠENERALI Birzebbugia hotel to climb to nine storeys JAMES DEBONO A Birzebbugia hotel will climb to nine storeys, just nine months after obtaining a permit for a seven-storey hotel overlooking Pretty Bay. The existing four-storey Sea Breeze guesthouse has applied for the addition of two storeys to its seven-storey permit. The Superintendence for Cul- tural Heritage had originally expressed its concern on the increase in the hotel's height, due to its prominent location immediately next to the local- ity's urban conservation are. It said that the hotel would vis- ually dominate and condition the surrounding streetscape around Pretty Bay. Even the Planning Authority's case officer recommended a re- fusal due to the creation of an unsightly blank party wall. Although the maximum height in the area is limited to five floors (17.5m), an ad- ditional two floors were ap- proved under a policy allow- ing hotels an extra two storeys over and above height limits. As approved in 2020, the new hotel will see an increase from the current 32 rooms to 86. Following changes to the façade in new plans endorsed by the PA's internal design panel, the seven-storey hotel was approved by the PA's plan- ning commission. A photomontage of the devel- opment shows the hotel dom- inating the bay along with the eight-storey high Water's Edge hotel owned by Charles Poli- dano which was approved in 2007. In 2017 the PA refused an application by Polidano for an additional storey on his ho- tel. A photomontage of the development shows the hotel dominating the bay along with the eight-storey high Water's Edge hotel owned by Charles Polidano which was approved in 2007. In 2017 the PA refused an application by Polidano for an additional storey on his hotel JAMES DEBONO A tribunal that slashes the Plan- ning Authority's daily fines and penalties on rule-breakers waived a total of €169,458 in fines on 25 planning infrac- tions – either on humanitarian grounds, or because the fines were disproportionate. Property entrepreneur Mar- co Gaffarena was granted a €42,791 'discount' alone on two pending enforcement fines for illegalities committed outside the development zone – one in Hal Farruġ and another on the site formerly occupied by the illegal Iċ-Ċavett restaurant in Qormi's tal-Handaq. Gaffarena had accumulated a staggering €85,582 in dai- ly fines on the two sites. The decision to reduce the fines was taken on 29 March by the Environment and Planning Re- view Tribunal (EPRT), which has the power to waive or re- duce hefty daily fines imposed against infractions. The right to present petitions against the fines imposed by the Planning Authority was established in a controversial legal notice, issued without public consultation in 2015. Fines can be reduced on "humanitarian" grounds or because the fines are deemed to lack a sense of proportion when compared to the nature and scale of the illegality in question. Gaffarena had incurred a fine of €35,000 after the PA issued a planning enforcement issued in Ħal Farruġ in 2008. The in- fraction consisted in the ex- tension of an existing room, the construction of a stone structure and a boundary wall, animal cages and illegal exca- vations on a farm. In 2020 the Planning Authority refused an application to change the use of the site from stables to a 'zoo' and a residence, but an appeal is still pending. In this case the fine was reduced by 50% on the basis that the fine imposed was disproportionate considering the nature and facts of the case. Gaffarena had also incurred a €50,000 fine for infractions at Tal-Ħandaq in Qormi con- sisting of the building of struc- tures without permit, includ- ing a swimming pool, and the use of the property for private functions. A PA official had confirmed the use of the site for commer- cial purposes in an inspection in 2014. In this case, Gaffarena had argued that the site had been occupied by a third party who had advertised the illegal eatery, known as Ċavett Place, from which he had later been evicted. But the illegal structures were not removed. Taking in consideration that a third par- ty committed the illegality, the EPRT slashed the due fine by half. Mark Gaffarena had secured the land in question in a €1.65 million property-and-cash deal in 2015 – the Old Mint Street scandal – in exchange for his half-share of a Valletta property that housed a gov- ernment agency's offices. The controversial transfer had re- sulted in the resignation of parliamentary secretary for Planning tribunal slashes €169,000 in 25 different daily fines imposed by Planning Authority, denying petitions by construction company Polidano Bros €42,000 discount for Gaffarena fines, no mercy for Polidano