PA CEO still mulling action on minister’s illegal pool a month since court ruling

The Prime Minister’s handpicked Planning Authority CEO Oliver Magro is still considering an enforcement order against the illegal development of an agriculture field into a pool and entertainment area at Minister Ian Borg’s home in Santa Katerina valley.

The development in the outskirts of Rabat has been termed illegal by the Court of Appeal and, according to law, is now subject to being completely removed and the imposition of daily fines until then.

But despite the court judgement and in a direct affront to the rule of law, the government and the Planning Authority – which had gone to extraordinary lengths to approve the development in the first place, as found by the Ombudsman, back when Borg was planning minister – appear to be protecting the foreign minister.

Senior PA officials have told The Shift that a stop and enforcement notice has been drafted for a while now but it is still pending Magro’s approval.

Magro at first ignored The Shift’s questions but when contacted directly he confirmed that an enforcement order has not yet been issued.

The Authority, he said, needs to have: “communication with the applicant and [the PA] will act in accordance with the adopted procedures when dealing with development which is not covered by permission.”

But so far, according to sources, there so far been no such communication with either the minister or his architect, Colin Zammit, to try to find a solution.

Sanctioning of the development would not be possible in this case since the current local plan does not allow for swimming pools like the minister’s. It either needs to be removed or be subject to a €50 daily fine.

“For us, it is quite clear that Magro is trying to postpone action against the minister for as long as possible,” our sources at the PA said.

It has been over a month since the Court’s final decision and Minister Borg is still to make any kind of public statement on the matter and he is refusing to answer questions.

Asked by The Shift whether he intends to remove the illegalities and reinstate the land to its previous state, the minister did not reply. He also ignored questions about whether he will keep using the pool now that it has been declared illegal.

It was only through the perseverance of nearby resident Noel Ciantar, who fought the illegal development against the odds, that the Court struck the PA’s permit down twice over.

Borg, however, had turned up the tempo of construction work during court proceedings, which allow development to take place in the interim, and completed the pool before the court ruled it to be illegal.

According to law, the development should now be removed through a PA direct action if the minister fails to observe the Court’s decision.