By Karl Schembri

Catherine Galea, the deputy chairman at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, has been asked by the environment minister to resign.
The decision follows MaltaToday’s story detailing her involvement in an illegal development on a green area that led to the partial destruction of a valley in Santa Marija Estate, Mellieha. Minister George Pullicino told the deputy chairman her position was “untenable”, and the Prime Minister is reported to have supported Pullicino in his decision.
The story in last Sunday’s MaltaToday led George Pullicino’s top officials to look into the matter.
MaltaToday was told that Galea is expected to submit her resignation tomorrow after meeting with George Pullicino earlier this week. “My client will be offering her resignation from the MEPA board,” her lawyer told MaltaToday in an email sent Friday evening.
He had written earlier in the week to clarify that MaltaToday had confused Catherine Galea with the namesake applicant of the project on which the deputy chairman was acting as architect.
But the lawyer representing Galea could not divert attention from the central issue that the deputy chairman, acting as architect for a client, had ignored planning procedures and allowed an illegal construction to take place.

Catherine Galea was summoned by the minister and asked to explain the illegal construction of a ramp and dumping of rubble at the foot of Mellieha valley, and the ensuing collapse of a road during the end of year floods.
In the final meeting held with minister George Pullicino on Friday evening following a week of investigations, Galea – who served as the architect for the construction of a bungalow in the valley just where the road collapsed – told Pullicino that she “panicked” as soon as she saw the disaster after the floods, instructing the contractor to speed up works illegally.
The architect, the first female architecture graduate in Malta, is said to have promptly agreed with the minister’s decision that her position at MEPA was untenable.
Meanwhile, contacted by this newspaper, Galea insisted through her lawyer that the illegal ramp was built after the collapse of the road even though photos that reached this newspaper show the ramp and rubble were already there even before the street caved in.
“After the road had collapsed, it was imperative that remedial works start as soon as possible in order to avoid further damage to the road structure, which collapsed fortuitously, as well as to the surrounding buildings,” Galea’s lawyer claimed. “A temporary ramp had to be built on already disturbed ground in order to gain access to the site to start the said works.”
Sources close to the minister said that the fact she was responsible for the illegal development of the ramp, given that she bypassed MEPA procedures, was enough to ask for her resignation, irrespective of whether this happened before or after the road collapse.
Galea is also claiming that the road only collapsed because of the floods as it was never properly constructed.
Asked if this meant she had planned a villa on a road that was about to collapse without assessing the risk for her client, Galea’s lawyer replied: “She did not know at the time when she submitted the plans that the road was not built as it ought to have been built and she only realised that the road was not properly constructed only after it collapsed. There was no reason, prior to collapse, to consider otherwise”.
Galea also accused MaltaToday of alleging that the development was outside the development zone, but the report never made such an allegation. In fact, the story quoted the MEPA case officer’s report describing the land as “a green area” and “a protected area” of “conservation value” but never alleged the area was outside development zone.
The planning and environment authority has now issued a stop and enforcement notice on the site at Triq il-Pont in Santa Marija Estate. “This notice covers both the illegal works consisting of the formation of a rubble ramp and the site covered by a valid permit,” MEPA spokesman Sylvana DeBono told MaltaToday.
The spokesman added the notice has been issued with immediate effect and makes it clear that Galea now has to submit a method statement, detailing how she intends planning the road’s reconstruction works.
She also has to submit a separate method statement “on how the rubble on the disturbed land not covered by permit is to be removed and the land re-instated to its original state”.
The widespread damage that has eradicated a protected green area has also affected at least two households whose members can only access their villas on foot in what remains of a destroyed bridge that is risking further collapse.
The developer has also obliterated other parts of the valley known as Wied Ghajn Zejtuna to make way for trucks and bulldozers, even though this was not covered in the permit issued in August 2006 against all odds. In fact, the proposal for the construction of a bungalow in Triq il-Pont with basements and swimming pool includes the felling of existing protected trees.
According to the case officer’s report, the valley is a green area of conservation value within the temporary provisions schemes where residential development is restricted.
The site in question covers an area of around 944 square metres and the building should have an area of around 250 square metres, although the destroyed land is much more than the area permitted.
The case officer states that the development, part of the swimming pool, water reservoir, pool deck and drive way, all encroach onto the protected area and the green area.
“The proposal is therefore unacceptable,” the MEPA officer goes on to add, listing several policies it is infringing.
Galea was also requested to revise her drawing but the officer remarked that the fresh plans were similar to the original and the footprint remained unchanged.
 
Working for Charles Polidano
Catherine Galea attracted unnecessary media attention when it became publicly known she was the architect for construction magnate Charles Polidano better known as ic-Caqnu, triggering widespread accusations of conflicts of interest.
The former president of Kamra tal-Periti (Chamber of Architects) was in conflicting roles way back in 2005, when while occupying the post of chairman of MEPA’s Development Control Commission (DCC) with the responsibility of deciding applications outside development areas, and submitted applications for apartments in Fgura, Mellieha and Fontana in areas outside the designated zones for development.
Galea had declared her conflict of interest and sat out when decisions for her clients were taken by the DCC, only to get back into the decision room as her clients’ architect.
MEPA Audit Officer Joseph Falzon, who repeatedly reproached the board then chaired by Galea, was quick to condemn the practise, saying the Code of Ethics that MEPA officials were expected to follow was “too general” and has “various lacunae” when it came to conflicting interests.
In December 2005, Galea was promoted in the MEPA hierarchy and she replaced Victor Torpiano as MEPA Deputy Chairman. By December 2006, Galea was engaged as Polidano’s architect for the construction of a supermarket outside the development zone in Haz Zebbug.
“This is obscene!” Astrid Vella of Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar had said in an interview. “The deputy chairman is effectively on the payroll of Malta’s biggest developer who has a track record of 82 environmental infringements. This is outrageous.”
At the time, Galea had declined to reply to MaltaToday’s questions on whether her role as an architect for Charles Polidano exposed her to a potential conflict of interest.
During a heated debate over the Sant Antnin recycling plant, environmentalist Steve Borg’s microphone was turned off while he was asking questions on whether Catherine Galea was fit to take decisions due to an apparent conflict of interest. Galea’s client Charles Polidano had business interests in the recycling plant in question. During this meeting MEPA chairman Andrew Calleja had asked Borg not to refer to Galea’s case. The debate was being chaired by Galea herself.
Another application submitted by Galea on behalf of Polidano, this time for another supermarket in Mosta, was turned down in April last year. Last December, Galea rescinded her representation of Polidano for the Haz Zebbug supermarket, handing over the project to another architect.
Also last year, in June, Galea flanked MEPA Chairman Andrew Calleja when he declared a boycott against Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, in the wake of the latter NGO’s harsh criticism towards the authority upon the controversial approval of 23 villas in Ramla l-Hamra.
Yesterday, Astrid Vella lauded the minister’s decision to on Catherine Galea.
“We greatly appreciate the positive and pro-active consultation that took place, and also the minister’s courageous and ground-breaking decision, which could not have been an easy one,” she said.
The law does not prohibit board members from private activities and all members of the MEPA board may retain their professional interests as their appointment is not a full-time one. When an application is being decided and a board member has a professional interest, this is declared prior to the discussion and the member withdraws from the discussion.
Yet Catherine Galea’s involvement in applications by Polidano raised more questions than answers. The report of the Commission of Inquiry covering Polidano’s illegal excavations which led to the collapse of the Xemxija road states that the developer in question has 82 pending enforcement orders. Both Catherine Galea and MEPA had ignored MaltaToday’s questions on whether representing Charles Polidano posed no problems with her role as deputy chairman of MEPA.
MaltaToday had also asked Galea whether a conflict could arise in view of the fact that as a board member she also votes on other applications presented by the same developer who is paying her for her services as an architect.

kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt