GUEST POST/Of all the government’s attempts to target the Opposition, this is the most pathetic

Posted by Antoine Vella:

Of all the attempts by the Labour government to target Opposition politicians, this is perhaps the most pathetic.

Even for a layman like me it’s possible to access all the necessary documentation online and discover the falsehoods Labour is peddling.

First of all, it is relevant to point out that the first development permit for the site was issued in 1981 by a Labour administration (PB 5862/81).

This is stated in the report of the Case Officer who processed Fenech Adami’s planning application (PA 843/08) for a third floor (image 4).

The 1981 original house was apparently changed/rebuilt in 1988 and again in 1994, the year Beppe Fenech Adami bought it.

For some reason, when the Structure Plan was drawn up in 1992, the line delimiting the building scheme passed right through the middle of Triq iż-Żellieqa so that one side of the road was included in the scheme while the opposite – which included Fenech Adami’s house – became technically an Outside Development Zone.

They were later incorporated in the building scheme as part of the much-maligned Rationalisation Exercise which, among other things, sought to rectify such oversights. The garden remains ODZ to this day and cannot be built up.

It’s important to emphasise, however, that this was not an ODZ development: the first building predated the ODZ classification by 11 years.

The government’s main argument is that Beppe Fenech Adami was given a special concession – obviously refused to others – to extend his house and build another floor. This is absolutely false.

According to the Central Malta Local Plan, issued in July 2006, the height limitation in all of Għargħur except the Urban Conservation Area (i.e. the village core) is of 3 floors plus semi-basement.

This can be checked in the first image I’m attaching. When Fenech Adami’s house was incorporated within the scheme (image 2) it was subject to the same constraints, conditions and height limitations as the rest of the village, i.e. 3 floors plus semi-basement. And that is exactly what exists today.

Labour has not published the document, variously referred to as a letter or memo, which they claim Lawrence Gonzi sent to Austin Walker regarding the height of buildings in Għargħur, so I cannot comment on it.

What I can say, however, is that MEPA Policy 0101/07 (image 3) amending Alignment Plan GHB1, prepared in January 2008 and published in July of that year, confirms that the house in question is classified as a terraced house (not even a villa, let alone a palace) and that it has, in fact, the height limitation of 3 floors plus semi-basement, in line with the rest of the village.

The truth of the matter is that the third floor of Fenech Adami’s house was approved because it respected the MEPA general policy for Għargħur.

With all the architects they have in the party, the Labour Party must know this, so can they please stop insulting us with their lies?