Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/290775
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 APRIL 2014 15 News Labour MP refuses to comment on Gaffarena business of the family business and father to Marco Gaffarena, said that his eight children had suffered "hard- ship" for five years due the station's closure. The Gaffarenas not only applied to sanction illegalities on the site of an outside-development- zone (ODZ) petrol station in Qor- mi, which had already been refused by MEPA in 2011, but also applied to construct a 31-square metre food and beverage outlet, with six car washes on the same site. Gaffarena was awarded a permit to erect the petrol station in 2007, but subsequent additions were made without permit. In Janu- ary 2011, MEPA turned down the sanctioning of extension works to Gaffarena's petrol station because the illegalities on site were result- ing in the further intensification of urbanization in an outside devel- opment zone. The illegal works on Luqa Road included the construction of a first floor over and above the height permitted for the petrol station, the increase in the building footprint, the construction of structures near the relocated car wash, an under- lying basement and the reduction in size of the underground water reservoir. Way back in 2008, MEPA had is- sued an enforcement notice and sealed off access to the entrance given that Gaffarena had wilfully decided to go beyond the approved planning permission he got in 2006 for the construction of a petrol sta- tion. The former parliamentary secre- tary for planning, Michael Farru- gia, defended the decision, insist- ing that everyone should be given an opportunity to regularise their position, and that Gaffarena had been "promised a permit before the elections." But Nationalist MP and MEPA board member Ryan Callus dis- missed Farrugia's claims, insisting that MEPA had twice turned down Gaffarena's application under the previous administration. The Bonello incident In 2011, an individual who re- ferred to himself as 'Gaffarena' assaulted former judge Giovanni Bonello, who had firmly opposed the permit application while serv- ing as a MEPA board member. The former European Court of Human Rights judge said he was attacked in restaurant in a St Julian's for re- fusing to vote in favour of lifting the sanctions on Gaffarena's petrol station. Joe Gaffarena had denied Bonel- lo's claims, insisting that neither he not any of his children had ever at- tacked Bonello. Daewoo In the early 1990s, Joe Gaffarena, was involved in a controversy over the location of the Daewoo car showroom in Mdina Road, Qormi which was originally built without a planning permit, as was its car storage at Hal Farrug. On the same premises, Gaffarena also had another business, Mixer Ltd, again without the necessary permits. The company was later sold to Bastjan Dalli, brother of former Nationalist minister John Dalli. Gaffarena later sold his shares in the Daewoo car sales agency to former ambassador Joseph Mary Scicluna. Although Gaffarena's li- cence to sell the Korean cars was due to expire and no agreement to renew it was in place, the business- man received several properties, including the Three Rocks Hotel and a large plot of land in Bahrija and the Dacia Car Sales Agency, in addition to a cash payment in re- turn. Comino's pig farm descends into state of total neglect All eyes on Comino With the exception of the pig farm, no construction has taken place on Comino during the past 34 years. Historically, the island was leased for 150 years to Comino Development Co. Ltd, a company owned by John Gaul, at the annual rent of £100. The Borg Olivier government negotiated a new deal to reduce Gaul's ownership to the area pres- ently occupied by the Comino Ho- tel, at San Niklaw Bay and the bun- galows at Santa Marija Bay. But it also refused the development of a restaurant on sister island Comi- notto, to be connected by means of a suspension bridge. In the late 1960s the Comino Ho- tel was acquired by Cecil Pace, but when the banker was arrested over misappropriation of funds and his BICAL bank licence suspended, the hotel was indiscriminately re- turned to John Gaul. An application for the extension of the Comino Hotel was presented 15 years ago and then suspended by MEPA in 2003, when the architect failed to submit the required docu- ments within the legal timeframe. In 2007, the hotel changed own- ership after entrepreneurs Joseph Gasan and George Fenech bought a share in Kemmuna Ltd, which runs the Comino Hotel and bunga- lows on the island, after acquiring Ropes Services Ltd in November 2007, a company registered in the Isle of Man. Ropes Services then acquired 551,470 ordinary shares in Kemmuna Ltd, with the remain- ing 698,530 belonging to Mizzi Associated Enterprises, owned by property magnate Albert Mizzi. The company's objectives include the administration of yacht charter, property development, and to de- velop new residential and commer- cial properties. Subsequently the developers presented two reports to MEPA but no further progress was made on this application. The local plan for Comino ac- cords the island the status of Special Area of Conservation and nature reserve, and only allows de- velopers to "upgrade" the existing tourist complex and hotel if it is "compatible with the sensitivity of the surrounding context". With the exception of the pig farm, no construction has taken place on Comino during the last 34 years Joseph Sammut