Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/853507
3 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 JULY 2017 News Planning Authority makes U-turn, website to allow search by location JAMES DEBONO A public outcry and a MaltaTo- day report have led the Planning Authority to backtrack on its decision to remove the possibil- ity for people to search online by locality for planning applica- tions and enforcement notices. The Planning Authority's new website, launched on Monday, had only allowed people to search for cases specifically by their case number, but following the criticism the new website at- tracted it now also allows them to search for cases by location, as in the old website. The old website had allowed people to type in the name of a town or village and get access to the list of planning applica- tions and enforcement notices for that locality. This meant that, for example, people could access all ODZ applications in a town by simply typing in that town's name. Through the old website one could simply input the name of a Maltese town or village and get a list of all applications, pending a decision, presented outside development schemes or with the urban conservation area in that locality. One could also further restrict the search by limiting it to a particular year. With the old website it was possible to get a constantly updated list for all pending ODZ permits in any town or village. It was also pos- sible to search all the pending enforcements in each of the 68 Maltese localities. However, as launched on Monday the new website only allowed people to search for cases specifically by their case number. This meant that, un- less people were in possession of the case number, such infor- mation could only be gleaned through the Planning Author- ity's geoportal. The new format of the website was criticised by Front Har- sien ODZ which had called on the Planning Authority to im- mediately reinstate the facility to search for all pending ODZ applications in each locality of Malta and Gozo and the facility to search all pending planning enforcements in each locality of Malta and Gozo. "In this way, local councils, NGOs and the general public are being deprived of a valu- able tool to scrutinise all pend- ing applications including those presented in the past and those which have still not been pub- lished in the government ga- zette but which have been given a PA number." Front Harsien ODZ said that although the website launched on Monday still gave viewers the opportunity to view applica- tions published in the govern- ment gazette each Wednesday, that website did not have the facility to search all pending ap- plications in each locality and to do so by ODZ or UCA designa- tion. On Monday the PA insisted that it was not trying to deprive or restrict the public from ac- cessing development planning applications information. "The Authority's online digi- tal platforms, which include the website, the GeoPortal and the e-Applications system are all inter-related to provide the public with the highest level of transparency," it insisted. The PA confirmed that its website presents weekly lists of all planning development ap- plications it receives by locality. "To facilitate the user experi- ence, the website also allows the user to view the list of plan- ning applications it receives de- pending on whether the site is within an urban conservation area (UCA) or outside the de- velopment boundaries (ODZ)," it added. Trapper's closed season conviction overturned on appeal A court's decision to fine a trapper and suspend his licence was overturned on appeal due to contradictory evidence from witnesses MATTHEW AGIUS A 64-year-old Gozitan trap- per, who was fined €3,000 and had his licence suspended last year after he was convicted of poaching in the closed season, has been cleared on appeal. Joseph Axiaq of Xaghra, had been found guilty by magis- trate Joseph Mifsud in No- vember 2016, primarily on the strength of the testimony of a CABS volunteer who had filed a report on March 13, 2016 at the Victoria police station, claiming that while on pa- trol she, together with some colleagues, had heard a bird- caller and seen a finch decoy in a cage. They also spotted a man hiding in a bush, who had made a hasty exit upon noticing the CABS personnel nearby. A DVD of footage shot by the volunteers was exhibit- ed in court. Axiaq had filed an appeal and insisted that the first court could not have reason- ably and legally found him guilty on the basis of the evi- dence it had before it. He had not been positively identified, he argued, and the footage did not show him committing any of the crimes that he had been convicted of. The CABS volunteer had testified that she had seen the accused leaving the area and had identified the vehicle he had used, but whilst still on the witness stand she had re- alised that she had confused two similar cases which had occurred on the same day and had then given the court a different number plate for the car allegedly used. But the Court of Criminal Appeal noted that in her re- port she had only said that the person had walked away and had told the court that "we did not see what vehicle he left in." The person in the foot- age was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses and his face was partially obscured by a bush, noted the court and this, together with the distance from which it was taken, "does not reassure the court that the person taking the video could recognise the person in the footage." The court also noted that no bird caller was heard in the video and that the cages filmed in the hide were empty. The ac- cused was not filmed in the hide, but a distance away from it, it observed. In addition, a police sergeant who had released an affidavit saying that his investigations had led him to identify Axiaq was never brought to testify in court. The accused consistently de- nied all involvement, saying the person on the video was not he, neither did the field belong to him and nor was he there on the date in question. Chief Justice Silvio Camill- eri, in his judgement on the matter, observed that this left only the evidence of the CABS volunteer linking the accused to the case, and that her evi- dence was unreliable due to contradictions. As it overturned the man's conviction, the Court of Criminal Appeal, however, made it clear that it shared the first court's strong views on those who break hunting and trapping laws and "the inesti- mable damage it does to birds which are amongst the most beautiful and most vulner- able creatures and which our countryside is very short of." Roberto Montalto was de- fence counsel.