Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1523590
13 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JULY 2024 JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Court upholds enforcement against illegal Palumbo waste disposal Seven-story block facing Bidni rural area approved after ODZ swimming pool dropped from plans Appeals court confirms decision by Planning Authority on 2016 enforcement order against Palumbo Shipyard in Cospicua for dumping of hazardous waste A Court of Appeal presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetcu- ti has confirmed a decision by the Planning Authority on an enforcement order against the Palumbo Shipyard in Bormla for dumping of hazardous waste. The judge threw out Palumbo's appeal against the PA's environ- ment and planning review tribu- nal, which upheld the PA order of 2016. The appeals case was filed back in 2023, when Palumbo appealed the EPRT's decision to uphold the PA's enforcement order. The PA's order had been issued only after a two-year investiga- tion on the dumping of hazardous waste under a concrete platform, erected way back in 2012 at the shipyard in Bormla. The PA accused the shipyard of creating a "landfill" without neces- sary permits and the dumping of waste under the concrete platform in violation of the law. Palum- bo was also reprimanded for not taking any action to transport the waste for authorised treatment. The Environment Protection Act expressly bans unauthorised landfills. The PA's enforcement order against Palumbo was issued a full 21 months after enforcement of- ficers collected samples from the site in 2014, and after MaltaToday had revealed the conclusion of the investigation into the illegally bur- ied waste. Palumbo has always insisted that the concrete bed had been laid on wasteland, and any waste depos- ited there had been placed there before the company took over the yard. It also claimed to have cleaned the area before the con- crete platform was laid. In September 2014 the PA an- nounced it had started to investi- gate the Palumbo site following a tip-off that quantities of grit blast- ing material were buried in the concrete foundations. From initial investigations it resulted that the grit-blasting waste, which is gen- erated by Palumbo's operations, had been used in the foundations and was buried under the con- crete flooring. In December 2014, three months after the investigation commenced, a Planning Authori- ty spokesperson told MaltaToday that it had received a laboratory report on the material collected from the site. The major issue in the investi- gation was to determine whether the waste was deposited in 2012, when the area from where the samples were taken was cement- ed, or before Palumbo took over operations upon the privatisation of the dockyard. But even if it transpired that the waste was deposited before Palumbo took over, it may still be held legally responsible for bury- ing the waste under the concrete platform, legal sources had told MaltaToday. The Planning Authority's then-executive chairman Johann Buttigieg had confirmed that be- tween 2012 and 2014, no permit was ever issued to superyacht yard operators Palumbo to export spent grit from sand blasting operations. "It transpired that Palumbo did not have a permit to export grit from the country. So what happened to the grit which was produced in those two years? Obviously, it was either laid under concrete or ended up in the sea," Buttigieg had told the PA's environmental and plan- ning review tribunal. Palumbo only applied for a per- mit to export grit after the PA clamped down on the company. THE Planning Authority has is- sued an outline permit for a sev- en-storey block at the interface between the sprawling urban area of Marsaskala and the the rural hamlet of il-Bidni, after the proposed development was lim- ited to the building zone. Original plans flagged by Malt- aToday in 2022 foresaw a swim- ming pool and decking area pro- truding outside the development zone (ODZ) but these were re- moved from the latest plans. The only structure to protrude beyond the development zone in the plans approved by the PA is a 1.5m wide paved passage which will provide frontage to the resi- dential units facing the ODZ. The permit was issued with a condition stipulating that the part of the site located beyond the 1.5m passage shall be utilised "for soft landscaping only". The development will still result in the take-up of agricultural land but the carob trees in the area pre- viously designated for the decking area will be spared. The permit issued so far is an out- line one, setting the scale, height and other planning parameters of the development, but a full permit is still required before works start. But the PA has approved in the principle the development of 34 garages, 41 apartments on six full floors and four penthouses at re- cessed floor level. The local plan imposes a height limitation of four floors and a semi-basement in this area of Mar- saskala, which according to pres- ent planning policies is equivalent to an overall height of 22 metres in which the developer managed to fit seven floors. The development will front an- other seven-storey development approved in recent years. The only pending issue is the relocation of a vernacular room which will be dismantled to make way for the development. The de- veloper wants the structure to be relocated in the ODZ, but the PA wants it to be relocated within the development zone. The PA had already issued an outline permit to developer Ken- neth Abela for 45 apartments on the same site in 2008. Before approving the applica- tion, the Planning Authority had expressed concern on five-storey high blank party wall overlooking the ODZ, but the permit was is- sued following guidance from the PA's executive committee. The permit was never implemented and has expired. Subsequently, an application was presented by Sharon Camilleri, for an elderly home which included the adjacent ODZ site, but later withdrawn. The present applicant, developer Francis Gauci declared that he is not the owner of the en- tire site but has been granted con- sent by the owners.