Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/661117
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 APRIL 2016 8 JAMES DEBONO AN application to sanction ad- ditions to a summer residence in Dwejra consisting of two ground- floor rooms, already refused in 2011 and in 2015, was approved by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) at the cost of a €285 fine on the owner. The development is located in a special area of conservation. The original 1957 structured was a legal development. In 2000 an enforcement order was issued over an illegal extension, and the illegal room on top of the struc- ture was removed by the appli- cant. In 2011 MEPA declared that the development was unsuitable for an area of high scenic value and ecological protection, and deemed the refusal to be "in the public interest." But in 2014 the Appeals Tribu- nal asked MEPA to process the application again, in line with the new rural policy approved that year; it was turned down by the MEPA board at a public meeting held in April 2015. But in an appeal with the EPRT, presented by Maurice Cauchi who was represented by architect Robert Musumeci, it was argued that the development was in line with the 2005 action plan; and the Tribunal decided that a previous decision on an adjacent structure where the "public interest" was invoked in 2011, was not a valid reason to refuse a permit, and that the action plan foresaw the regu- larisation of the illegal structures. The Dwejra saga This week, the MEPA board reject- ed four applications to approve illegali- ties that had already been rejected back in 2010 and 2011, but awkwardly approved the rebuilding of a boathouse that had collapsed – perpetu- ating a distinction between legal and il- legal boathouses that defies any logic. 47 of the 68 boat- houses in Dwejra were built illegally after 1968. In 2005, the Nationalist admin- istration issued an action plan to regularise any illegal boathouse that had filed for a permit before 2006. Just days before the 2008 elections, MEPA regularised 20 boathouses in the highly sensitive and protected area, a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage sta- tus. In 2010 and 2011, under the JAMES DEBONO THE Malta Environment and Planning Authority has removed a condition stipulating prior ap- proval from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, for the de- velopment of a swimming pool in the archaeologically sensitive area in Mgarr. The condition was imposed be- cause the proposed pool will be located in a Class A area of ar- chaeological importance. The pool off Triq il-Konkors Te- atrali, proposed by Pio Chetcuti, was originally approved in Janu- ary by MEPA against the advice of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, the Environment Pro- tection Directorate and the Plan- ning Directorate. The Superintendence warned MEPA back in October 2015 that the proposed pool was in the "im- mediate vicinity" of documented archaeological remains consisting of tombs, cart ruts, a rubble wall including megalithic boulders, and possible traces of ancient quarrying activities. It warned that the development would impinge negatively on the "cultural landscape" and serve as a precedent resulting in an "urban sprawl" through the development of more pools and decks in the ar- ea, "detaching the archaeological features from their setting" and possibly "jeopardise their preser- vation." The Superintendence recom- mended that the area be "kept free from development." The case officer had also recom- mended refusal of this permit, ar- guing that the rural development policy approved in 2014 does not consider archaeologically sensi- tive areas as "appropriate loca- tions" for swimming pools. According to the policy, sites of archaeological importance "are in principle considered inappro- priate locations", unless it can be News MEPA overrules heritage superintendence over pool in archaeological site MEPA board changes permit condition to allow owner to develop pool in archaeologically sensitive area in the vicinity of the Skorba and Ta' Hagrat pre- historic sites Illegal extension to Dwejra structure gets green light Dwejra, a special area of conservation, and the legal and illegal boathouses The Mgarr fields just outside the proposed development (in yellow) where various archaeological findings have been registered Rubble walls which include a large number of megalithic boulders. Rock- cut tomb consisting of a rectangular entrance shaft Straight rock-cut ledge, most probably a tomb Ancient quarry spreading in different directions, forming at least nine rock faces within where a number of tool marks can be seen Burial chamber accessed via shallow entrance shaft Corbelled ancient hut