MEPA asked to sanction illegal car park in Archbishop’s seminary

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority board will be meeting on 6 June to decide whether to regularise an illegal underground car park in the Archbishop's seminary school in Rabat.

An enforcement order issued in April 2012 referred to the illegal construction of an additional parking area at basement level underneath an approved car park at ground level. 

According to MEPA regulations, a fine has to be paid before a new permit is issued.  The underground car park includes 55 car parking spaces. In total, the seminary will have 110 car park spaces at both levels. 

In a letter sent to MEPA in January, the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage noted that works for the car park which had already been executed were not monitored, and that "archaeological remains may have been destroyed by the works". 

While noting that the sanctioning or otherwise of such works falls under the responsibility of MEPA, it recommended that the archaeological scheduling for Rabat be extended to Tal-Virtu.

The Environment and Development Planning Act specifies that no sanctioning of illegalities can take place on protected areas if the works were carried out after May 2008.

But according to the case officer, this provision does not apply to this case because the scheduling of the area is still being proposed.

The case officer report therefore recommends the sanctioning of the car park with the added justification that this will provide more on-site parking required for the school and also facilitate off-street parking for the Tal-Virtu residential area.

MEPA already issued a permit for the extension of the existing seminary school in September 2010.

During the works carried out subsequently, a number of tombs were discovered, and various changes to the approved plans were carried out after these were requested by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.

The original permit was blasted by the MEPA auditor Joe Falzon in a report issued in January 2011, in which he described a case officer's report justifying the extension of the Archbishop's seminary on the scenic Rabat ridge of Tal-Virtu as an example of "sheer incompetence or abuse".

Falzon claimed that the MEPA board was "misled" by an "unacceptable report" and points out that it should not be concluded that the application had to be refused.

The extension was meant to accommodate an expansion of the student population from 250 to 825 and a staff increase of 60.

The development approved in 2010 extended the floor area of the existing seminary by 430%, and included the construction of a new primary school with 29 new classrooms, a dormitory, six laboratories and a new parking area with 67 slots.

The Curia defended the project on the basis that the expansion was required by the recent education reform, which promotes continuation between primary and secondary school.