The Malta and Environment Planning Authority has written to MaltaToday stating that no action has been taken by environmental lobbyist Astrid Vella to regularise her position with respect to an enforcement order issued on her summer residence in Xewkija.
Last Wednesday, this newspaper reported that the Gozo home of the spokesperson for Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar was the subject of an enforcement order over an unauthorised window and keyhole window, which had had not appeared in the architect’s plans for Vella’s residence.
MEPA spokesperson Sylvana Debono yesterday said the enforcement notice, issued on 30 March 2007, concerned internal and external alterations which were not according to a permit issued for alterations and additions to the dwelling and for the construction of a pool.
“From inspections carried out by MEPA, it resulted that variations from the approved drawings exist on site. These consisted of an additional window and door, variation in the design of balcony and increase in the height of the parapet wall (opramorta). The owner, Ms Astrid Vella was informed of the enforcement action initiated.
“To date no action has been taken by the owner to regularize this position,” Debono said.
Last Wednesday Vella claimed that everything had been regularised with MEPA.
When contacted last week, Vella said her architect had inadvertently left out the window and the keyhole window from the plans. “The balcony is different to that in the drawings as our contractor decided to create one that would enhance the street corner and be more in keeping with the Urban Conservation Area, 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.”
The outspoken Astrid Vella who mobilised hundreds in protesting against 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.
Calleja reacted by declaring he would “boycott” Astrid Vella, a hazy claim after the FAA spokesperson called for MEPA’s board members to resign.
An anonymous letter sent to newspaper editors last week 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.

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