Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1478966
NEWS 5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 14 SEPTEMBER 2022 TradeMalta Limited, The Clock Tower, Level 1, Tigné Point, Sliema TPO 01 | Tel: +356 2247 2400 Expression of Interest Business Mission to Saudi Arabia - October 2022 TradeMalta is pleased to invite Malta-based businesses to join a trade delegation to Saudi Arabia. The business delegation will be led by the Hon. Dr Ian Borg, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade. The trade mission shall be visiting Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during early October. This business mission aims to provide Malta-based businesses with the opportunity to expand into new markets or grow existing business relationships. Interested parties must submit the following information with their application: • Company's track record in international business; • Experience or preparedness in doing business in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region. Shortlisted companies may be eligible for financial assistance to partly cover the cost of the visit. A non-refundable service charge of €354 including VAT per company will apply. TradeMalta reserves the right to reject any application. Expressions of Interest should be sent to TradeMalta by Friday 23 rd September 2022 at 17:00 hours. To register for this event please visit www.trademalta.org C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Print output 18 x 3.pdf 2 13/09/2022 09:15:13 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Abela was at the time the chief lawyer to the Planning Authority when in April 2017, the PA's plan- ning commission approved own- er Joseph Camilleri's request to 'regularise' illegal alterations and additions to the dwelling. The permit included no involve- ment of the PA's legal office and during the March election Abela denied exercising any influence on the authority to regularise the illegalities. The existing property is divided into a 354sq.m main building and a further 91sq.m of rooms built along Triq Xrobb l-Ghagin. The new proposal concentrates the villa on a 237sq.m footprint with an overlying storey on the ar- ea occupied by the present build- ing. In this way the same floor area of 444sq.m will be retained over a smaller footprint. A pool surrounded by a grass area will be constructed on an existing landscaped area which currently includes a wooden gaze- bo. Areas currently occupied by a duck pool, an existing swimming pool and the existing rooms along the road will be replaced by land- scaped areas. The works, including the exca- vation of the new pool, will be tak- ing place in the buffer zone for the neighbouring Tal-Ginwi archaeo- logical site. Illegal works carried out before 1994 The unauthorized works on the villa had been carried out before 1994 and then regularised by the PA's planning commission in 2017. The illegal extensions had dou- bled the size of the farmhouse to 352sq.m, when such ODZ (out- side development zone) buildings could only be extended up to a maximum 200sq.m floor area. The PA's case officer, who rec- ommended approval, recognised that the scale of the additions was the main issue with regularisation, given that the total floor area of the existing building exceeded the 200sq.m allowance. But the case officer justified approval, on the basis of a Rural Policy clause allowing extensions carried out before October 1994 to be regularised "if the exten- sion does not visually dominate the existing dwelling" and if these are considered "acceptable in the wider landscape". Moreover, the case officer also refers to "steel sheds" on an area of 440sq.m which were removed between 1994 and 1998, arguing their removal over 20 years ago to make way for landscaping, made the sanctioning of the illegal- ly-built structures "acceptable". Since a store proposed for sanc- tioning was located at a lower lev- el from the rest of the building, the case officer felt it did not visually dominate the site. An 80sq.m swimming pool and decking area was also developed without a permit, but this was deemed acceptable because it had replaced two small rooms demol- ished before 1994, while animal enclosures in the same site were justified because these predated the 1994 cut-off date. The site also happened to be in a buffer zone for the Ħal Ginwi ar- chaeological site, but the case of- ficer deemed the swimming pool acceptable because it consists of a "plastic" structure and its con- struction did not involve any ex- cavations. Objections by the Agricultur- al Advisory Committee were also overruled on the basis that the illegalities to be sanctioned pre-dated 1994. The advisory panel had insist- ed that since the development had involved "the unjustified up- take of agricultural land" it was in breach of policies encouraging soil conservation. The panel had also objected to the regularisation of animal enclosures for donkeys and poultry, due to the absence of documentation on the animals kept on the site. As often happens in similar cas- es involving ODZ dwellings, the favourable recommendation was based on an interpretation of con- flicting policies by the case officer. Abela had denied influencing PA's 2017 decision to sanction irregularities