PA’s handling of rival crematorium applications raises a stink

A Siġġiewi crematorium application filed in 2025 is being recommended for full development permission this week, while a competing Paola application submitted in 2021 has secured only outline approval and still requires further technical assessment before construction can be authorised.

The government-appointed Planning Board is scheduled to consider Mario Tonna’s Siġġiewi proposal on Thursday, less than two weeks after Active Group obtained approval in principle for its Paola project on 24 September.

The different stages reached by the rival applications, and the way the PA and other government authorities – particularly ERA – have handled them, mean the newer application could obtain full planning permission before the project submitted four years earlier.

PA officials speaking to The Shift on condition of anonymity said “something stinks” about the way the authority is handling the process.

The Shift is informed that Tonna acquired the Siġġiewi land earmarked for the crematorium from two brothers, businessmen from Birkirkara, known as having close ties to Prime Minister Robert Abela and his wife, Lydia.

Approval for the project could significantly increase the land’s market value, and it is not known what conditions were tied to the deal when the land changed hands.

Paola: application submitted in 2021

Active Group’s application, PA/05280/21, proposes a standalone crematorium at Tal-Ħorr, near Addolorata Cemetery. A separate, earlier proposal for the same area was refused in 2018.

The current application spent five years in the planning process before receiving outline approval last month. The board voted nine to one in favour.

The developer must still submit a full development application.

Outstanding technical work includes an emissions dispersion study that will determine the chimney height. Outline permission does not authorise construction.

Siġġiewi: application submitted in 2025

Mario Tonna’s application, PA/07540/25, proposes a crematorium and 2,480 columbarium spaces beside Ta’ Brija cemetery.

A cemetery extension was approved in 2021, but that permission did not authorise a crematorium. The current crematorium application dates to 2025 and is being recommended for full permission.

The PA’s case officer classifies it as a cemetery extension under the 2015 policy.

The 2024 policy expressly retains that assessment route while imposing separate location criteria on standalone crematoria.

ERA initially raised concerns about extensive interventions at the rural site. According to information supplied to The Shift, the application was changed from screening to a full development application a day after Robert Abela announced the last general elections.

The case officer’s report records that strangely, ERA did not respond within the consultation period following submission of a cemetery management plan and the PA treated that non-response as no objection.

The sequence could give the newer project an earlier opportunity to proceed towards construction and operation, subject to other necessary approvals and this will allow one operator to establish customer relationships and secure business before its competitor enters the market.

Sources in the funeral industry also stressed that Malta’s small market was unlikely to sustain two commercially viable crematoria.