Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1398274
13 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 AUGUST 2021 • Cutting grass without permission in or near fortifications and throwing waste in the ditch or vicinity of fortifications • Refusal to help and give information when required to do so by a public authority in the event of a tumult or calamity • Allow an insane person under his custo- dy to go about at large • Having no possessions and no means of subsistence and failing to habitually en- deavour to engage in or exercise some art, trade or other occupation • Keep a place for public divine worship without being duly licensed • Taking advantage of the credulity of oth- ers, for the purpose of gain and pretends to be a diviner, fortune-teller or an interpreter of dreams • At night time, disturbs the repose of the inhab- itants by rowdiness or bawling • Wears any mask, or disguises himself in any public place, except at the time and in the manner allowed by law • Leaves exposed in any street, open space, field, or other public place, any ladder, iron bar, weapon, or other instrument, of which an improper use might be made by thieves or other wrong-doers, or which might cause any injury • Exposes himself naked or is indecently dressed in the harbours, on the sea- shore or in any other public place • Quarrels or fights, although jestingly, in any street or open space to the annoyance or injury of passers-by • Drives animals over a drawbridge otherwise than at an amble • Engages in conspiracy with persons of the same profession or business with the object of raising or lowering the price of any article, or the wages of labour, or of imposing conditions to the prejudice of the public • Causes any physician, surgeon, obste- trician, or priest, to attend on or visit any person whom he falsely represents to be sick • Leads an idle and vagrant life and har- asses others when begging for alms in a public place • Being a parent or a spouse, leaves his children or spouse or parents in want, whether in consequence of his or her disorderly living or laziness • Runs violently in any street or open space, with the risk of running into and injuring other persons • Wilfully disturbs the public good order or the public peace • Found drunk and incapable of taking care of himself in a public place or place open to the public • A person over 15 years of age who uses any playing equipment at a children's playground • Challenges another to fight with stones or threatens others with stones or other hard substances, or throws the same, or takes up any other weapon against without injuring the other person • Throws stones, other hard substances or any dirt at the terraces, roofs, win- dows, doors, courtyards, lamps or walls of houses of other persons, or of any other building; or knocks at the door, or rings the bell of any other person's house or building • Attempts to use force against any per- son with intent to insult, annoy or hurt such person or others, unless the fact constitutes some other offence under the law • Through carelessness throws water, or other liquid, or filth upon any person • Frightens others in a manner that might cause harm although this is done in jest • Shoots doves or pigeons, other than wild doves or pi- geons, belonging to others • Plucks or eats the fruit or other produce from fields belonging to any other person Selection of offences that will be judged by local tribunals JAMES DEBONO THE Planning Authority has ap- pealed a court judgment awarding €331,295 in compensation for dis- crimination to landowners denied a permit to develop a garden centre, on land where construction mag- nate Charles Polidano later was awarded a PA permit for a super- market in 2007. The court found a "clear case of distinct treatment", ruling that the original landowners had been prej- udiced by the PA's preferential be- haviour after hearing that within a year, Polidano acquired the land and obtained a supermarket per- mit which he sold to the Lidl supermar- ket chain for three times the price he had origi- nally paid. In the p r o c e e d - ings the P l a n n i n g Authority had ar- gued that the super- market was d e v e l o p e d on a larger plot of land, and that the actual supermarket building was not developed on the site previously identified for a gar- den centre, because that land had been later used for the supermar- ket's landscaping and parking area. Three applications to develop a garden centre outside the develop- ment zone on Qormi Road, Luqa had been turned down in quick succession in the 1990s. Although plans were modified to allow most of the land to be taken up by green- houses, the authority said that any construction could not be higher than the airport perimeter fence. Objections were presented by the Civil Aviation Directorate and MIA because the plot fell within the air- port's "blue area" and could present a hazard to flying aircraft. In 1995, the family sold a parcel of the land to J.D.G Properties at Lm15,000 (€34,950) and the rest to developer Charles Polidano at Lm100,000 (€230,000) in 2007. That same year Polidano bought the other plot from J.D.G Proper- ties at Lm500,000, (€1.16 million), and a supermarket permit was ap- proved in March that year. Four months later, Polidano sold the site of the current Lidl supermarket for Lm1.99 million (€4.63 million). In his judgement Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti said it was "contradictory" and "illogical" that a garden centre was deemed as too commercial for the area, whereas a supermarket was acceptable. This was a "clear case of distinct treatment for no valid reason at law… to the detri- ment of the applicants." The Court observed that the value of the land in 2007, with permits, would have been €564,295. Work- ing out the difference between that value and the selling price paid to the applicants, the court awarded them €331,295 in damages. The case had initially been inves- tigated by the PA's former internal auditor Joe Falzon, who way back in 2009 had called for disciplinary ac- tion against employees of the PA's planning directorate who approved the Polidano supermarket. Falzon, since then vindicated by the court sentence, had called on the PA to refer the case for investigation of "possible criminal responsibility" over what he called "a gross irreg- ularity". In 2009 the case was instead re- ferred to an internal inquiry board composed of PA board members Joe Tabone Jacono, Charles Bonni- ci and Joseph Farrugia. The inquiry centred on the role of case officer Norbert Gerada and then team manager Silvio Farrugia, whom the panel interviewed. The investiga- tion found no criminal intent on the part of the PA officials involved, but that the PA board which had been "positively inclined towards the project", did so on the basis of plans that did not correspond to the approved project. The PA has ruled out another in- quiry on the issue of the permit fol- lowing the court judgement, which it is now contesting. Caqnu's supermarket: PA appeals against compensation to former owners Aviation warning at Lidl supermarket