Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/357188
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 AUGUST 2014 4 News Yacht Club in limbo over illegal expropriation of playground Court says government expropriation of playground, granted to the Royal Malta Yacht Club, was illegal JAMES DEBONO THE Royal Malta Yacht Club (RMYC) is appealing a court sen- tence which upheld a Malta Playing Fields Association (MPFA) claim that the government's expropriation of 672 square metres of land leased to the association in 2002 was illegal. The result is that the sentence re- vokes the subsequent lease of the same land to the RMYC. The court described the case as one of "two weights and two measures" by the National Sports Council. Evidence presented in court also casts a light on former Minister Austin Gatt's style of government having told former MPFA chairman Anthony Bonello that "in the same way that it was we who have given you the land, we can take it back," in a meeting in 2008. The RMYC was relocated from Fort Manoel, where it had had its headquarters for the previous 40 years, after its land was granted to the MIDI consortium. But the land which presently hosts the RMYC's premises and sailing school was originally leased for 49 years to the MPFA in 2002 on condi- tion that it would be used exclusively for sports facilities, including "offices, gymnasiums, sports clinics and other sports facilities" – eight years later this same land was expropriated and leased to the Royal Malta Yacht Club after the club moved out because of the MIDI project. The Ta' Xbiex lido had been run by the Playing Fields Association since the 1950s. In 2002 parliament ap- proved a deed envisioning the devel- opment of unspecified sports facili- ties run by the association. The Malta Environment and Plan- ning Authority (MEPA) approved a permit for the development of a sail- ing school by the Playing Fields As- sociation in 2006 to which the gov- ernment made no objection. The order to expropriate the land from the Malta Playing Fields As- sociation was given by the National Sports Council, which claimed that the association was not honouring its contractual obligations that the land was to be used for a public purpose. The Sports Council insisted that there was no reference to a sailing school in the contract signed with the Playing Fields Association and that the land in question was not used for a number of years. In September 2009 the same land previously given to the MPFA, to- gether with the restaurant and the former Malta Maritime Authority office, was granted through a tempo- rary emphyteusis of 49 years to the RMYC. A Lands Department official tes- tified that "the Commissioner of Lands was asked to expropriate the land to allocate it to the Royal Malta Yacht Club because in the opinion of the Malta Sports Council, this was to be put to a better use." The MPFA was given €12,000 in compensation for the expropriation. Expropriation not in public interest The court sentence concludes that the alleged breach in contract con- ditions was used as a pretext by the Sports Council to expropriate the land. "If the breach of contract was so serious, the council should have sim- ply terminated the emphyteusis," the court said. "Instead it erroneously chose the easier way; that of expro- priating the land." The court concluded that an expro- priation order has to be justified by the "public interest" and not by the fact that the land was left in a state of neglect. "This court has no doubt that no public interest justified this expro- priation." Moreover the court noted that the Playing Fields Association's inten- tion was to use the land for the run- ning of a sailing club, the same use made of the land by the Royal Malta Yacht Club. The only difference, according to the sentence, is that the Royal Malta Yacht Club is a "private entity" whose facilities are open only to members. The sentence describes the case as one of "two weights and two meas- ures." The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away While on the face of it, it was the National Sports Council which was calling the shots, court evidence points at the direct involvement of former Minister Austin Gatt, who was responsible for the Malta Mari- time Authority. Anthony Bonello – former chair- man of the Malta Playing Fields As- sociation – claims that in 2008 he had received a phone call from Mark Portelli, a former chairman of the Malta Maritime Authority, in which he was informed that the Authority needed the land in question. Subsequently the minister sum- moned the officials of the association for a meeting in which he told them that the government intended to take the land back. Bonello claimed under oath that Gatt had told him: "In the same way that it was we who have given you the land, we can take it back." In a statement issued on 11 Feb- ruary, 2009, Gatt's ministry claimed that the government had committed itself to relocate the RMYC because of the MIDI project. In this light, the government announced that it was handing over the Malta Maritime Authority offices in Ta' Xbiex and the adjacent Malta Playing Fields As- sociation offices to the RMYC. The ministry argued that the as- sociation had not administered any playing field since the setting up of local councils, who took over the re- sponsibility for playing fields. "Furthermore, the association never administered maritime schools and in the light of this lack of organisa- MINISTRY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, THE ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST Technical and Economic Evaluation of Potential Green Economy Actions The Ministry for Sustainable Development the Environment and Climate Change (MSDEC) is in the process of developing an action plan to support and incentivise the Greening of the Economy and is therefore interested in receiving Expressions of Interest from candidates who are willing to carry out technical and economic evaluations of one or more identified potential actions and initiatives for the greening of the economy. Submissions will be received at the Procurement and Supplies Directorate, at No 6, Qormi Road, St. Venera up to 10.00 am on Friday 8 August 2014. A sample Expression of Interest in PDF format is available for downloading on the Ministry for Sustainable Development the Environment and Climate Change website: http://www.msdec.gov.mt or collected from the said Procurement and Supplies Directorate. Further information and clarifications can be obtained through a request via e-mail on contracts.msdec@gov.mt. ! Former Nationalist minister Austin Gatt was said in court to have told the Playing Fields Association that 'in the same way that it was we who have given you the land, we can take it back'