An enforcement system that rewards those who break the law

The case of an illegal villa being constructed in Armier, in full view of the Planning Authority, is yet another damning illustration of the culture of enforcement failure that we have allowed to fester for years. Momentum calls on the Planning Authority to immediately enforce its own notice and demolish the illegal structure.

The current system allows illegal development to proceed even after enforcement notices are issued. Fines accumulate over time but serve as little more than a cost of doing business for those who can afford to wait. Physical removal only becomes possible once a €50,000 threshold is reached and the Direct Action team is triggered, by which point the structure is long complete. This is not enforcement but a bureaucratic process designed to give the appearance of action while delivering none.

The re-appointment by Robert Abela of Johann Buttigieg as CEO of PA, a man already outed as in the pocket of Yorgen Fenech, is a clear signal that greedy persons can proceed with impunity.

Both PL and PN have had ample opportunity to fix this. Neither has. The result is a culture in which those with the means and the audacity to build illegally know that the system will not stop them in time.

Momentum has consistently called for binding rules that ensure illegal developments are physically removed at the offender’s expense, with clear time limits and a single enforcement entity responsible for action. The current fragmented system, where different authorities pass responsibility between themselves, is precisely what enables cases like Armier to unfold in plain sight.

The Malta Ranger Unit should not have to document illegalities week by week and hope that their records eventually reach the European Commission. A functioning enforcement system would have stopped this before the first block was laid.

The Armier site occupies coastal land that belongs to the public. Building illegally on public land, adjacent to a Natura 2000 protected area, represents a serious affront not only to planning law but to the rights of every resident and visitor who has an equal claim to Malta’s coastline. No enforcement notice, no fine schedule, and no 16-day restoration deadline is adequate to the scale of what has happened here. The structure must come down.

“What we are seeing in Armier is the logical consequence of years of weak enforcement under both Labour and Nationalist governments. The Planning Authority issues notices, the contravenor carries on building, and by the time any serious action is contemplated, the villa is finished. This cannot be allowed to stand. The structure must be demolished, the land restored, and the law applied equally to everyone,” said Matthew Agius, committee member of Momentum.

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