Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1469874
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JUNE 2022 NEWS Bahrija gate: new appeal could set precedent to block public access JAMES DEBONO BAHRIJA landowners Touch- stone Ltd have filed a second appeal against the Planning Au- thority's refusal to block public access to their land, this time on the basis of a policy which se- cures public access to footpaths which existed prior to 1967. The company, which owns the land in question, filed an appeal against a planning enforcement asking them to remove the il- legally erected gate, which has been blocking public access to a passageway leading from Baħrija to the Blata tal-Melħ since April 2021. The PA cannot take any action against the gate until a decision is taken on the two appeals. The case is being viewed as a major test case for rambling rights. If the EPRT (appeals tri- bunal) decides in favour of the owners, it could set a precedent for other gates blocking access to old coastal footpaths located on land claimed by private own- ers along the Maltese coast. The company, through their architect and lawyer Robert Mu- sumeci, has already appealed against an enforcement order is- sued after the PA refusal to regu- larise the gate, asking the owners to remove the gate. In this ap- peal Musumeci argued that the landowners did not even require a permit to erect a gate on their private land. In their second appeal, this time against the PA's decision not to sanction the gate, Musu- meci argues that the PA's poli- cy securing access to pre-1967 footpaths only applies to public land, and cannot be enforced to stop owners from blocking ac- cess to their land. In the appeal Musumeci ac- knowledges that the gate was in- stalled "to stop the public from entering private property." He also argues that good planning requires that the public knows which land is private and which land is public. In its refusal, the PA referred to the Rural Policy which regulates ODZ developments, that spe- cifically states that "traditional and historical country paths should be safeguarded irrespec- tive of their type of ownership" and that "proposals which cause damage to or destruction, clo- sure, removal, obstruction or hindrance of public country pathways should not be permit- ted." Musumeci, a planning consult- ant to government when this policy was drafted, argues that the policy specifically refers to "public country path-ways" and not to those located on private land. To substantiate his argument, he cites a previous decision by the tribunal, based on a previous court decision, through which Ta' Cenc owner Victor Borg erected a gate blocking access to the coastline. Musumeci argues that the only way through which the govern- ment can secure access to the coastline is by expropriating the land in question and turning it public. Moreover, Musumeci also argues that in this coast the public can access the coastline from other pathways. The gate has been installed by Touchstone Ltd, a company owned by the Baħrija landown- ers Eliza Limited, which had acquired the land claimed by the feudal title of the Barony of Baħria. In 2005, the company attempted to evict farmers after buying a 1,500-tumolo parcel from Salvatore Consoli-Paler- mo-Navarra, whose heirs sold the land for some €2.5 million. The Ramblers Association re- cently denounced the "unjust" sanctioning system, through which illegal developments even in ODZ and other protected ar- eas can be regularised after the authorities are faced with a fait accompli. The Ramblers Associ- ation contends that the system rewards those "who operate il- legally" without "facing any con- sequences" while penalising the public. Test case could set precedent for other gates blocking access to coastline, as landowners argue private land gives them every right to block public access IOSIF GALEA CONTINUED After an extensive search that included the seizure of his elec- tronic devices, Galea was later granted police bail, which Mal- taToday understands to have lasted three months. Since then Galea was allowed to travel from Malta multiple times, with in- vestigating offers granting him an exemption to leave. The internal police inquiry is supposed to investigate the nature of these instructions, al- though critics claim four police officers – an assistant commis- sioner, a superintendent, and two police inspectors from the SIRENE unit and the cybercrime unit – risk being 'framed' for fol- lowing orders from top brass. It was only after Galea's ar- rest that the Maltese police is- sued their own EAW, report- edly a face-saving measure that emerged in the press a week later. Later it was made known that Maltese police had been all the time aware of the German EAW. Arnold Cassola, the independ- ent politician, yesterday said one of the police inspectors from the SIRENE unit facing the internal inquiry, had been chasing the Attorney General for over sev- en months to effect the German EAW against Galea. "Up to yes- terday this certificate was not issued by the AG. Judge Franco Depasquale will not be allowed to access such info at the AG of- fice," he said of the retired judge leading the internal police in- quiry. The rule-of-law NGO Repub- blika accused Commissioner of Police Angelo Gafà and deputy commissioner Alexandro Ma- mo, the head of the FCID, of us- ing the inquiry to blame the po- lice officers for allowing Galea to travel despite his implication in a Maltese money laundering probe, where his arrest by the Italians has caused the Maltese force major embarrassment. MSS employee in Muscat holiday party Galea was arrested in Italy where he was to join his partner, an assistant of Michelle Muscat, also on holiday with husband Jo- seph Muscat, the former prime minister. The Muscat holiday party at the Cellini San Marco, an agro- tourism resort owned by famed Italian singer Al Bano, includ- ed long-time friends: Aman- da Xuereb, a police sergeant detailed to the Malta Security Service's accounts section, and her husband Manuel Vassallo, a former police officer today employed as security with the American embassy. This detail raises questions as to whether the German EAW was constantly given scant at- tention by Maltese law enforce- ment. Former Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi took up the issue of Xuereb's friendship with Mi- chelle Muscat, querying whether the police officer had informed her MSS superiors of Galea's presence. "It's for this reason that this investigation cannot be carried out by an internal police board that reports to the minis- ter only and stays confidential, but by a board of inquiry set up by the Inquiries Act that must publish its report," he said on Facebook. "It is through such an inquiry that we can learn whether this MSS member's actions during this trip were appropriate, given that the MSS does not fall under the police's remit to investigate." The Home Affairs minister has refused to comment on the presence of an MSS employee in the same holiday party, citing the Security Services Act's pro- visions on confidentiality.