The spokesperson for the environmental organisation Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar is the target of an enforcement order by one of the FAA’s own targets – the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.
The outspoken Astrid Vella, who mobilised hundreds in protesting against the government’s extension of building development zones and MEPA’s decision to allow the development of 23 villas in Gozo’s Ramla l-Hamra, had infuriated the authority’s chairman Andrew Calleja after alleging irregularities in the planning process over the Ramla development.

The ‘offending’ window

MEPA board chairman Andrew Calleja reacted by declaring he would “boycott” Astrid Vella, a hazy claim after the FAA spokesperson called for MEPA’s board members to resign.
The subject of the enforcement order concerns an unauthorised window and keyhole window in her second home, which is situated in an urban conservation area. The window had not appeared in the architect’s plans for Vella’s summer residence in Xewkija, Gozo.
When contacted, Vella said her architect had inadvertently left out the window and the keyhole window from the plans. “This balcony is different to that in the permit drawings as our contractor decided to create one that would enhance the street corner and be more in keeping with the UCA, so he added a traditional ‘locc’ or keyhole window above the balcony door, measuring approximately 24 x 18 in.
“The bedroom window that the architect forgot to include in the original plans is on the main road but MEPA contended that there ‘might be issues of privacy’. My architect assures me that in all his long years of practice as an architect he has never been told that a window overlooking a road, let alone a main road, poses issues of privacy.”
She said that everything was now regularised with MEPA and that there was nothing irregular with her second home, which will also houses a swimming pool.
Vella has been at the forefront of a campaign to sensitise public opinion about the destruction of the national heritage at the hands of encroaching construction and mega-development projects.
Managing to mobilise hundreds of mainly middle-class protestors, Vella has come to symbolise the new face of civil society in Malta.
An anonymous letter sent to newspaper editors gave details of her Gozo house infringement which was noted by MEPA on the 30 March, 2007. Vella’s MEPA permit was granted in November 2002.

(see Opinion - Saviour Balzan page)