Paradise Bay owners apply to regularise illegalities

The  owners of the Paradise Bay Lido have presented an application to regularise additions made to a permit issued in 1999, including stairs and a parapet wall built without any authorisation.

Currently MEPA is banned by law from regularising any development on scheduled locations such as Paradise Bay which is a Special Area of Conservation and a Natura 2000 site.

But the consultation document “For an efficient planning system” issued in April 2014 proposes the deletion of the Sixth Schedule, which will be replaced by the imposition of daily fines.

MEPA still has to inform the developers through a “screening letter” whether the application conforms to existing policies.

Last month a similar application that is invalid according to the existing law was presented to regularise illegalities in the Grotta disco, which is located in the scheduled Lunzjata valley.

In March 2014, the owners of the Paradise Bay restaurant were served with an enforcement order against the construction of an illegal canopy covering the restaurant’s terrace, the construction of a room being used as a kitchen, the creation of concrete paved areas used for placing of sunbeds and umbrellas, the levelling of pathways and the development of cladded boundary walls between sand level and concrete area.

The first enforcement notice against concrete paving in the same site was issued in 1993.

But in 1999 MEPA issued a permit for additions and alterations to an existing restaurant.

Plans presented by the developers show that most of the restaurant area is covered by the 1999 permit which even includes a small area which was never developed, but the stairs and parapet are completely irregular.

Two applications to regularise the development were rejected in 2004.

In 2008 MEPA issued enforcement notices against two rooms built without a permit. A year later an enforcement order was issued against the deposit of concrete to form passages, the deposit of construction material and new boundary walls without permit on a scheduled property. The latest enforcement order was issued last March.