Aqra bil-Malti
Former minister Manuel Mallia has finally succeeded in plans to extend his villa in the protected Gozo valley of Ta’ Cenc complete with basement and swimming pool.
Extensive works to demolish most of the pre-1978 building are currently ongoing but the Planning Authority has not uploaded details of the commencement notice, including details of those responsible for the works on its website, as required by law.
Mallia was left out of cabinet by Robert Abela but was named High Commissioner to the UK and has lived in London for the past three years.
He has been trying to extend his Ta’ Cenc villa and to construct a massive swimming pool on protected garrigue land for years but the house is located in a Special Conservation Area and is fully protected under EU environmental rules.
Mallia’s original development application was turned down twice, first in 2011 and then at the appeals stage in 2012.
Mallia and Prime Minister Robert Abela
A new policy was drawn up when Labour returned to power in 2013. The Rural Policy and Design Guidelines 2014 gave leeway for extensions in ODZ areas and led to massive abuse in rural areas across the islands.
Mallia tasked architect Saviour Micallef – a close associate of Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli – to draw up fresh plans including a sizeable extension to Villa Feigel, the construction of a basement and garage to be built separately from the villa’s footprint, and a large swimming pool on garrigue land.
Both the Superintendent for Cultural Heritage and the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) objected to the proposal because both the basement and swimming pool went against the more lenient policy drawn up by Labour.
The planning directorate recommended refusal, but Mallia finally got his permit when both the ERA and the Superintendence lifted their objections following cosmetic amendments to the plans.
According to the Planning Commission responsible for ODZ permits, chaired on that occasion by Anthony Borg, the changes proposed were “acceptable” even though the basement and garage are still against policy.
Mallia’s ODZ property (in circle) in Ta’ Cenc is located metres away from the Demarcos’ summer property.
Mallia’s development is metres away from a similar villa owned by the PN’s Demarco family, which Mallia used to justify his already established legal commitments in the area. When he bought his villa, Mallia worked in the law firm of the late former President Guido De Marco.
The Ta’ Cenc plateau has a cluster of 11 unique villas built in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Attempts to build more have always been turned down over the past 30 years.
Estate agents value each of these villas in the millions at current market prices.
Is Mallia needing more space and water to cool off his frustrations?
What an aptly-named residence, Feigel in German meaning cowardly.
Doubly apt as it shows that we’re a country run by buffoons who can’t write their own language.
If the name is meant to be in Maltese, it’s spelt “fejġel”.
Nobody can claim that Malta is not
a third world country
anymore:
Corruption determines the day-to-day business of the government.
Cronyism without end,
even down to the police who do nothing and cheekily lie to the citizens.
We all know that the fish stinks from the head, and it stinks unbearably here.
.
Please, a bit of respect for “third-world countries” (a categorisation which is no longer in use anyway). I know – for having visited them or worked in a few of them – quite a few of what you call “third-world countries”, and i can tell you that they are way more decent: they don’t go to sleep thinking “money” and they don’t wake up with “money” as their first thought of the day.
Back in uni, studying worldwide bribery caselaw, Nigeria came out as the most corrupt jurisdiction, in everything from thieving politicians to murders in the Niger Delta. Malta has, since 2013, taken that title.
M. Mallia…E. Scicluna…and so many others…Atavistic hunger is not an obscure abstract concept, is it ?
Mhux ta’ b’xejn qleb mal-Labour ja korrott li hu.
Maybe they granted the extension because he had grown out of his home?
“He has been trying to extend his Ta’ Cenc villa and to construct a massive swimming pool on protected garrigue land for years but the house is located in a Special Conservation Area and is fully protected under EU environmental rules…Both the Superintendent for Cultural Heritage and the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) objected to the proposal …The planning directorate recommended refusal…got his permit when both the ERA and the Superintendence lifted their objections following cosmetic amendments to the plans…. “but the house is located in a Special Conservation Area and is fully protected under EU environmental rules…” Evidently not sufficiently protected from our “planning” authorities or from their modus operandi…