No justification for Armier substation

An €82,000 substation proposed by Enemalta to secure a reliable electricity supply to the illegal shacks in Armier is set to be turned down by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

The Planning Directorate is advising the MEPA board to turn down the application in a meeting scheduled on 6 January because its approval will benefit illegal developments in the area.

"There is no reason, from a planning point of view, as to why the substation should be permitted, considering how the proposed structure is aimed to provide services to beach rooms which are used as illegal holiday homes proposed to be demolished through the Structure Plan Policies," the Case Officer report calling on MEPA to refuse the controversial application states.

The Planning Directorate also declared that the proposed development runs counter to Structure Plan Policies REC9 and REC12, which encourage the removal of illegal structures in coastal areas and on government land respectively.

The proposed  substation would be covering a total floor area of about 40m² with an overall height of four metres.

Although the site is not located within Natura 2000 site, its surroundings are designated as a Special Area of Conservation. An appropriate environmental assessment carried out by the Environmental Directorate states that this proposal will result in the take up of further rural land and would be servicing illegal beach rooms.

When asked to justify the project, Enemalta's architect acknowledged that the substation was meant to address the low voltage problem at Armier.

According to Enemalta, the structure was meant to provide adequate electrical distribution, not only to current beach rooms but also to future developments.

But the case officer contends that "it is unlikely that further development will be take place and hence there is no valid planning reason as to why this development should be permitted."

Following consultations with the Environmental Protection Directorate and Local Planning Unit, it has now been concluded that the proposed substation would further consolidate illegal beach rooms which are found in the northern coastal areas of Marfa, close to the White Tower. This scenario goes against EU Habitats Directive and LN 311 of 2006, the case officer report warns.

Seven environmental NGOs, namely Ramblers Association of Malta, Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, Din L-Art Helwa, Malta Organic and Agriculture Movement, Nature Trust Malta, Friends of the Earth Malta and Birdlife Malta are strongly urging the board to refuse this application.

"For an EU member that prides itself on its sense of democracy and justice, allowing prime land to be seized illegally and have this bless by a government desperate for votes on the eve of not one but two elections, is a betrayal of every tax-paying citizen on these Islands.

"Approving such an application would simply encourage more of the building abuse that MEPA claims it is trying to stamp out. As such, an approval of this application would go down in the annals of our history as one of the most irresponsible, illegal and unjust precedents that MEPA has ever set."

Electricity to illegal squatters

Enemalta already supplies 110 illegal boathouses in Armier with electricity.

A law enacted in 1992 precludes the Enemalta supplying electricity to any "new development" lacking a valid MEPA compliance certificate. But although none of the Armier boathouses possesses a compliance certificate, all were already supplied electricity by Enemalta before 1992.

The boathouse squatters have complained about the poor and unreliable electricity supply for years, and even claim that the poor supply poses a health hazard.

The squatters had raised their case for a reliable supply in a meeting with minister Austin Gatt in November 2005.

According to the Armier boathouse owners' newsletter, the minister simply told them that they were barking up the wrong tree, and that they should talk to Enemalta directly.

A month later, the Armier squatters met an Enemalta official who told them that the only way to increase the voltage in Armier was through the construction of a new substation to replace the 2,000-metre long overhead lines.

Just three months before the election in November 2007, Enemalta applied to construct a substation at it-Torri l-Ahmar, a few metres away from the illegal boathouses.

In 2008, a spokesperson for the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications told MaltaToday that the new substation was meant to "benefit all registered consumers in the area" and is "not specifically connected to the provision of supply to boathouses."

Armier Saga

MEPA's refusal of the pending application for a substation on the grounds that the boathouses should be removed as stipulated in the Structure Plan flies in the face of several commitments made by the government in the past years.

Gonzi has already signed a written declaration promising not to demolish boathouses built before 1992, in an unpublicised meeting in Castille just three weeks before the crucial 2008 general election.

On that occasion, government promised that "within six months of being re-elected the government will consult with MEPA on the relevant permits" for the approval of a new development that will replace the existing shantytown with an even larger but more organised village.

But MEPA has subsequently replied that it cannot process the application before the Marfa Action Plan is approved. The action plan was published in draft form in 2002 but still has to be approved.

The government had already committed itself in another agreement, signed eight days before the 2003 election, to hand over 230 tumuli of public land in Armier to Armier Developments on 65-year lease against an annual Lm157,000 (€350,000) payment.

The same guarantee was given by the Labour Party in parallel pre-electoral meetings.

In a meeting in 2009, newly-elected Labour leader Joseph Muscat also pledged to honour a 2002 agreement signed with the lobby, and renewed in 2007, on the reconstruction of the Armier village as long as no speculation or destruction of irrigated agricultural land took place.

In May 2009 a spokesperson for the Prime Minister confirmed that Armier Developments Limited were asked to provide their data about the boathouses built at Armier prior to 1992.

Subsequently, the boathouses were numbered, and a list of the owners was presented to the Office of the Prime Minister.