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Karl Schembri
Bertu Mizzi, the millionaire businessman who is to be adorned by an OBE from the Queen, is quickly turning Santa Marija valley in Mellieha into a concrete maze as he is offering villa owners on his land to waive their contract conditions for thousands of liri so that they could build more.
In a practice that has been going on for years, Mizzi, 78, has offered to scrap contracts limiting development in the beautiful Santa Marija valley for as much as Lm15,000 so that owners of villas could build more semi-detached villas or even apartments.
Known as Santa Marija Estate and owned by Mizzi through his company Cenmed Ltd, the high class private neighbourhood once enticed rich dwellers to live in detached bungalows in an exclusive area at the foot of the Mellieha cliffs where only 20 per cent of each plot could be built.
The property magnate and close collaborator of every government administration since Mintoff has now scrapped most of the restrictions through hefty amendments to the contracts, paving the way for further development.
Some of the villa owners there complained that the characteristic gardens of the estate surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the valley are being cemented as more residences are being built, overcrowding the area.
But others smelling a quick buck have been quick to reach agreements with Cenmed over the last years to get the green light for land speculation.
Mizzi declined to answer questions about his lucrative deals in Mellieha when contacted by MaltaToday. Asked since when he started waiving contract conditions, he said: “Those are the company’s confidential affairs.”
Mellieha residents say the deals have been going on for at least five years.
He said he was not responsible for development there since the official approval rested with MEPA.
Former Mellieha mayor Saviour Vella, who together with scores of other Mellieha residents had won a court case and its appeal against Mizzi to pay for the maintenance of his own area, says land speculation and further construction took an upturn since the late nineties, when he was heading the council.
“I saw the valley disappearing when I was mayor,” he said.
The current mayor, John Buttigieg, confirmed that Mizzi started waiving contracts, originally to sanction development that had already happened against contract conditions.
“Whoever had made alterations to the villa would pay something in the region of Lm15,000 to amend his contract,” the mayor said.
Despite the easy income, Mizzi, as owner of the estate, is still refusing to pay the maintenance bills and postponing the payment through further court actions.
In June 2003, the Civil Court decreed that Cenmed was obliged by law to build access roads to the villas in the estate and to pay for their maintenance, as well as to provide drainage, water and electricity systems within three months of the verdict. The sentence was confirmed by an Appeals Court decision last February.
Mizzi was under the spotlight last year when he struck a Lm10 million “bargain” with a Belgian property company on behalf of the Maltese government to buy an abandoned building in Brussels, opposite the European Commission’s headquarters.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi praised Mizzi publicly in the midst of the Dar Malta controversy, for giving a sterling negotiation service to the Maltese government “for free”.
“All I asked for was the air ticket,” he had told il-mument in an interview. He got it for free anyway, as he does with all his Air Malta flights – a privilege reserved for all former directors of the national airline, which he set up under Mintoff and headed for 19 years under Labour and Nationalist governments.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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