The Malta Environment and Planning Authority is using a newly-approved agricultural policy as the pretext to justify the permit it granted to Safi’s Nationalist mayor Peter Paul Busuttil to construct his bungalow and swimming pool outside development zones on his former pig farm.
The permit was granted to him a few weeks before the general elections.
But the new agricultural policy risk becoming yet another pretext for the arbitrary change-of-use of abandoned ODZ farms into new developments such as villas.
MEPA has issued an outline permit for the PN mayor’s one villa and a swimming pool, MaltaToday can confirm, contrary to reports in Labour organ Kullhadd last Sunday saying Busuttil had been authorised to build three villas. He has now applied for the full development permit.
Busuttil told MaltaToday MEPA had denied him permission to develop a warehouse on the same site. “They haven’t even allowed me to build three dwellings for my own children… They only issued this permit because of a new agricultural policy.”
The new policy effectively allows the redevelopment of farms which have been abandoned for the past five years. Busuttil claims his farm has stood abandoned for the past ten years and is now unsuitable to rear animals because two boreholes are extracting water in its vicinity.
Busuttil became a folk hero to Nationalist supporters following his frame-up in 1986 when he was wrongly accused of the murder of Raymond Caruana. He claims Labour is picking on him to undermine the government.

Policy chaos?
MEPA’s agricultural policy risks opening the floodgates to development on abandoned farms because it grants too much arbitrary powers to consider any type of development.
The policy allows MEPA to grant permits to change the use of any disused or abandoned livestock farm building outside building zones. The residential development that follows must however not exceed 7m in height while total floor space cannot exceed 200 sq.m.
The policy however does not refer to the development of swimming pools, as the Safi mayor will be building.
Indeed, the policy states clearly that only one dwelling unit can be built, and that no structure can be allowed within the site, except for rubble walls and an underground rainwater reservoir.
As a general rule, the acceptable use for abandoned farms includes their redevelopment into agricultural activities, visitor attractions, stables, or slaughterhouses. And to redevelop the farm, applicants must prove that none of these uses are feasible on his land.
Ambiguously, the policy also states other uses “which in the opinion of the Authority would contribute to an improvement on the site or to the general environmental infrastructure like waste treatment facilities” may be considered favourably, subject to necessary studies and if necessary an environmental impact assessment. If the disuse farm lies within 183m of development zones, MEPA can also consider redevelopment into “other uses” not specified in the same policy.