Planning rules set to change for illegal residences occupied by PM’s contractors

Through Prime Minister Robert Abela’s personal intervention, the government has ordered the Planning Authority to change the rules (local plan) in the area where a cluster of residences was built illegally in a rural ODZ area in Xewkija to sanction and legalise the residences eventually.

The notice was combined with a similar exercise for the controversial Villa Rosa, exposed by The Shift, and aimed at solving a decades-long issue affecting the extended family of Vella Brothers Right Mix Ltd, known as Tal-Malla. The cluster of houses built in ODZ illegally, together with a cement plant, pose a problem for the planned Gozo airstrip.

The contractors are working on Abela’s farmhouse in Xewkija, which he is turning into a hotel.

Last week, The Shift reported that Tal-Malla, who control hundreds of votes usually given to the Labour Party, were pressuring various Labour ministers not to proceed with the airstrip extension. Their houses, all built illegally in the 90s and issued with enforcement orders never implemented, are situated some 300 metres away from the proposed airstrip.

In a Facebook post last week, Planning and Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri wrote that “a solution would soon be found” for Tal-Malla.

When The Shift asked whether he would be trying to change the local plans to legalise what has been illegal for decades, the minister remained silent.

Abela and Camilleri’s solution to fix illegalities

Through a short notice on the same day that it announced a ‘public consultation’ on the revision of St George’s Bay in St Julian’s, aimed at allowing mega contractor Anton Camilleri (Tal-Franċiż) to double his proposed mixed tourism project, the Planning Authority announced another intended revision—to designate the Tal-Malla illegal settlement as a “rural settlement.”

According to the Planning Authority, this was to “clearly delineate the development boundary, identify the developable land within the boundary, public roads, the acceptable land uses and building height limitations within the overall framework of the Gozo and Comino Local Plan, provided that additional development on vacant land is strictly controlled”.

The real reason is to ‘legalise’  the Tal-Malla residences to secure votes for the Labour Party.

If the proposed changes are approved, as expected, this will clear the way for all these illegal houses, occupied in some way or another by members of the Tal-Malla family, to apply for sanctioning, making their properties legal.

The story so far

The area known as Ta’ Gargun is situated in a rural location on the outskirts of Xewkija, close to the heliport.

In the 90s, members of the Tal-Malla family started erecting houses, some even with swimming pools, close to their illegal concrete batching plant, also situated in the same area.

No permits were ever sought, and the area is now dominated by illegal houses, garages holding storage of gas cylinder distributors, others with chicken rearing facilities and other illegal structures.

Over the years, several members of the Tal-Malla extended family applied to sanction their illegalities and retroactively obtain a valid permit for their dwellings. Without such a permit, they cannot even sell their houses.

However, since the local plan made it clear that the area was rural and the dwellings were in a green area where such development was not allowed, the Planning Authority consistently refused to sanction the houses. At the same time, it issued enforcement orders to fine the illegal occupiers. These measures were never followed by direct action.

Prime Minister Robert Abela was in direct contact with the family since they were working on his boutique hotel in Gozo.

The Planning Authority, managed by Oliver Magro, Abela’s former colleague at the Authority, is now calling for comments on these proposed changes through a so-called ‘public consultation’. The process will end in under a month.

Planning experts have told The Shift that the move will open the floodgates for more abuse as all those in a similar situation – thousands, according to Planning Authority estimates – will expect similar treatment.