Stop PA’s backdoor approval of illegal developments [Video]

A coalition of NGOs and resident groups want Robert Abela to stop the Planning Authority from sanctioning illegal developments.

In a press conference outside Castille on Saturday morning the groups said that the prime minister’s lack of action in this matter is overseeing a “power seizure” by developers over the country’s planning and justice system.

The issue came to prominence recently after the PA sanctioned a development which had been declared illegal and stripped of its permit by a Court of Appeals just months prior.

That decision sparked outrage and triggered an Ombudsman investigation, as well as a formal appeal into the sanctioning application.

Moviment Graffitti activist Andre Callus said that Malta’s already rotten planning system was being plunged to new depths by the Planning Authority. 

He said that the developer behind the sanctioned development that made headlines, Gozo magnate Joseph Portelli, has three other illegal construction projects which currently have sanctioning applications before the PA. 

“Sanctioning procedures are meant for cases …