Valletta quayside users pleased as tribunal confirms restaurant ‘extension’ is illegal

Planning Authority’s appeals tribunal turns down another attempt to regularise a tented structure in front of the Porticello restaurant in Valletta

The Planning Authority’s appeals tribunal turned down yet another attempt to regularise a tented structure in front of the Porticello restaurant in Valletta.
The Planning Authority’s appeals tribunal turned down yet another attempt to regularise a tented structure in front of the Porticello restaurant in Valletta.

The Planning Authority’s appeals tribunal turned down yet another attempt to regularise a tented structure in front of the Porticello restaurant in Valletta.

The illegal canopy occupies an area almost as large as the footprint of the restaurant building itself, and was set up on the quay right in front of the historical building’s main façade, which once served as a portside police station.

The saga had long irked fishermen who have long passed by the quayside restaurant’s edge to reach boathouses that are also occupied by the Malta Sea Kayak Club.

In its decision, the environment and planning review tribunal (EPRT) underlined the difference between placing chairs and tables on an open space while keeping the connection with the public area open, and completely enclosing the same space with a tent structure, which it found unacceptable.

The tribunal emphasized the importance of this public space, which is in close vicinity to the ferry linking Sliema and Valletta.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had strongly objected to the canopy, which dominates the façade of the former police station. Objectors had also complained that the enclosure obstructed a public passage leading to boathouses used by fishermen and the Malta Sea Kayak Club.

The site is covered by a previous permit issued to Anthony McKay in July 1998 allowing the placing of 10 tables in front of an existing pizzeria. But in 2014 the Planning Authority issued a temporary permit, valid for six months, to “sanction the placing of outside tables and chairs” over larger area as well as an adjacent “tent structure.”

This application was presented by restaurant operator Darren Debono, the former Malta international footballer now implicated in the Operation Dirty Oil fuel smuggling investigation; in 2020, Debono was arrested and held in preventive custody.

In 2015, Debono applied to convert the temporary tent into a permanent structure. But this application was withdrawn, only to be presented once again in 2017 by Marvin McKay, the son of Anthony McKay.

The PA later issued an enforcement notice against the tent in 2018 and McKay’s application to sanction the tent was also refused. It was after the application was turned down that Marvin McKay presented his appeal to the EPRT, thus further delaying any enforcement action by the PA – this is because due to the appeal the PA had to suspend its enforcement action.

In his submissions on behalf of McKay, architect and lawyer Robert Musumeci argued that since permits had already been issued for chairs and tables, the enclosure was not taking away any public land. Musumeci also referred to another permit for a similar structure for a nearby restaurant.

In its 2018 decision, the PA had found the proposal to be in breach of the Grand Harbour Local Plan, which clearly states that no development which adversely affects historical monuments, can be allowed. The PA also concluded that the enclosure of the area for tables and chairs was impeding the public’s enjoyment of the quay in question.

The case officer had pointed out that while the placing of tables and chairs in public spaces can enable some members of the public to enjoy these spaces comfortably, the link between the seated spaces and the rest of the public realm is interrupted when such public spaces are completely enclosed, making it almost entirely impossible for non-paying members of the public to use these spaces.

The restaurant, which originally went by the name Scoglitti, had been blacklisted by the US government over the fuel smuggling allegations first identified in a United Nations panel of experts report. In September 2018 the US Treasury Department updated its sanctions list to reflect the change in the name of the restaurant, Porticello. Debono was one of four Maltese individuals and companies hit by sanctions related to fuel smuggling out of Libya.

The restaurant had been closed after Debono was arrested in Catania on charges of fuel smuggling in October 2017, but reopened in April 2018 after being renamed Porticello.