Christmas Mepa hearing for Gaffarena illegalities

The planning authority will tomorrow assess an application by Mark Gaffarena to sanction illegalities at a Naxxar home which include two bedrooms built over a public lane and abutting on another property. The building includes a residential unit built before 1992, which was extended in a way that clashes with the original structure and occupies an Urban Conversation Area. The hearing features among an unusually long list of permit applications due for hearing, some of them controversial, just days before Christmas. The case officer report states the permit application requests “the sanctioning of the roofing over a part of a public lane that was camouflaged in the submitted drawings by indicating the last part of the lane as if it were a garage when in fact it gives access to a public area and a number of garages; avoiding showing that a section passes through the illegally roofed part of the lane by describing this part as third party property, with both bedroom one and two built over a public lane”. The case officer is recommending refusal of the permit but this is no guarantee the planning authority will follow suit. Application to sanction illegalities Mr Gaffarena’s name...