Dingli hamlet hit by domino effect as one villa leads to another

The foundations of a never-completed building approved back in 1979 have triggered a domino effect on the rest of the Ta’ Sabbat rural hamlet in a picturesque area between Buskett and Dingli cliffs in an area, where new villas are not normally allowed on virgin land.

Over the past years, the Planning Authority has approved three brand new detached villas on virgin land, despite local plan policies protecting the area.

The latest was approved on the basis of the domino effect created by other permits, and against the recommendation of the case officer and the contrary vote of planning commission member Carmel Caruana, who insisted the permit was in breach of the local plan.

But two other PA board members approved the permit citing the Development Planning Act, which allows the PA to take in consideration existing legal commitments in the area where a development is proposed.  In this case, the developers’ architect presented a map showing legal commitments in the area consisting of two fully detached dwellings approved after 2018, and the sanctioning of two illegally constructed villas in nearby sites.

These included a new 155 sq.m detached villa on an adjacent site approved by a differently composed board chaired by Elisabeth Ellul in 2019, back then also against the recommendation of the case officer. The villa had been approved on the basis of a legal commitment created by a 1979 permit for a farmhouse, never developed save for its. Subsequent attempts in 1995 and 2010 to construct the villa were refused by the PA. The case officer, who was ultimately overruled, had insisted that foundation works could not be considered as a commitment of an ‘existing building’ to qualify for redevelopment.

Yet another permit was issued in 2017 to sanction an illegally constructed villa built sometime between 1967 and 1978 – the permit was based on the rural policy that considers pre-1978 structures as legal.

Another nearby villa was also approved in 2021, following a decision by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal to overturn the PA’s refusal. Significantly it was approved on the basis of the precedent created by the redeveloped villa on the 1979 foundations.

Now a brand new villa with a garage and a pool is being proposed on agricultural land in another area of the Ta’ Sabbat hamlet along Triq il-Buskett, 135m away from the Buskett woodland, next to a derelict hotel which its owners want turned into an old people’s home. The apart-hotel, also constructed in the 1970s, had a redevelopment permit issued in 2010.