Mgiebah development and obsolete MEPA

Abstract

Mellieha residents are livid that, despite their numerous exhortations to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, the rape of pristine garigue at Xaghra tal-Girdellu, Mgiebah, has been allowed to proceed without the same MEPA batting an eyelid. At the time of writing this article, more than two weeks have elapsed since the first reports reached MEPA about the illegal building of a room on what was once thyme-spattered garigue and the illegal scarifying of the same garigue to dump debris and open an access road. A concerned citizen from the area, Raymond Sammut, is understandably livid that MEPA have put the onus on him for not recognising the perpetrators of this infringement, since now MEPA has no face and no name to which to issue the enforcement notice for the case - isn't it MEPA's innate duty to identify perpetrators and demolish illegal buildings as soon as they sprout, rather than being bogged down in lengthy enforcement procedures?