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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 AUGUST 2025 The St Peter's Pool syndrome Editorial THE shenanigans taking place at St Peter's Pool in Delimara by the owner of a makeshift bar need to stop. Videos of the man throwing stones at tourists, insulting them and shoving them out of his place are as damaging to Mal- ta's tourism product as the viral videos of loud, drunk and indecently dressed young tourists causing mayhem in Swieqi. But this leader is not about tourism or the ob- noxious behaviour of an idiot who thinks the world owes him a living. No; this is about the planning illegalities on site and the people who stand to benefit from the impending 'reform' that government wants to push through. The makeshift bar has no planning permit. The building extensions to a rural room have no planning permit. No change of use was ever sought to turn agricultural land into a public car park. A caravan was placed on site for res- idential purposes. The list of planning illegal- ities is endless. An enforcement order on the site issued in 2022 is suspended because the owner is appealing. But the site has a history of enforcement or- ders being issued for planning infringements. The Planning Authority had slapped two en- forcement orders in 2016. Another one goes back to 1997. In each of these three actions, the PA website says that the case was closed because the planning infringement was re- moved by the authority and the cost was to be recouped from the owner. It appears though that the owner continued to ignore the PA and persisted in illegally de- veloping his site. The attitude towards tourists is just the outward manifestation of this per- son's complete disregard to the rule of law. And this man's attitude towards planning rules is not an exception. There are countless examples of individuals—big and small—who have shown a complete disregard to planning rules. So, when Prime Minister Robert Abela started quoting pitiful cases of people suffering from cancer to justify his atrocious planning reform, he was being disingenuous. Along with the odd cancer patient, there are countless other indi- viduals who knowingly and repeatedly broke planning rules and the St Peter's Pool man is one of them. The reform is now subject to a public con- sultation exercise that will end on 15 Septem- ber. The government has not withdrawn the two bills that were tabled in parliament before the summer recess and we seriously doubt the planning bills consultation will lead to mean- ingful changes. Planning Minister Clint Camilleri confirmed recently that the local plan proposals put for- ward by the PA for the Villa Rosa site in St George's Bay—which were cut and paste from the plans developer Anton Camilleri had put forward—will remain unchanged. If the Villa Rosa local plan exercise is an- ything to go by, it does not bode well for the more radical reforms the government wants to introduce in the planning process and the ap- peals stage. Irrespective of what the prime minister's head of secretariat says, the public consultation on bills 143 and 144 was an afterthought. It on- ly came about when government realised that its reform could not be rushed through parlia- ment because the Opposition was not going to play ball and civil society roared in disapproval. The government is still in time to withdraw the bills—it would be a sign of goodwill that it intends to listen and take on board suggestions being made by various environmental groups, architects and residents. However, if this is not what the government intends to do then it should be clear about its intentions. It might as well say that it wants to appease developers because their contribu- tion to the economy is more important than safeguarding the environment. Worse than the planning bills themselves is a government that tries to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds in a fake balancing act that always ends up favouring big business and developers. Ordinary people deserve honesty—we deserve better. Quote of the Week "MCAST was never notified of any fraudulent transactions by its auditors PKF Malta." MCAST Chief Financial Officer Marita Brincat testifying in court in ongoing criminal proceedings against the institute's payroll manager Francine Farrugia, who stands accused of fraud and money laundering. MaltaToday 10 years ago Nationalist MP among eight facing charges over Seabank worker's death 23 August 2015 OPPOSITION MP Francis Zam mit Di- mech is among eight peo ple facing charg- es of involuntary homicide of a Latvian man who died during the construction of a hotel in Mellieha in 2012. The former tourism minister is among those charged with the involuntary death of the construction worker, in his capacity as a former director of Seabank Hotel and Cater- ing Limited. In comments to MaltaToday, Zammit Di- mech said that he on ly got to know about the charges through the media and had not yet received a notice to appear in court. While saying that he would be "the last per- son on earth" to com promise the investiga- tions and legal procedures, Zammit Diinech said he has been charged in his capacity as a non-executive direc tor. "I sat on the board of directors of a compa- ny which engaged a contractor on a design and build c.onlract and unfortunately a man lost his life in tragic circumstancesduring the construction. Now the court must decide the level of responsibility of the people in volved." Zammit Dimech has been charged along- side Seabank Hotel owner Silvio Debona, CEO Arthur Gauci, B&B Construction own- er Angelo Bartolo, B&B Holdings and I,west- ments general manager Etienne Bartolo, structural engi neer Pierre Farrugia, archi- tect....