New law to suspend building permits when under appeal to be presented to Cabinet ‘in coming days’

A proposed revision to planning laws to suspend development permits until all legal avenues for appeal are exhausted is set to be presented to Cabinet “in the coming days”.

The announcement was made on Friday (today) morning by Minister for Planning Clint Camilleri.

He said that work has been underway throughout the summer to revise the law of appeal in the permit process.

The explained that the intention is that permits which are still in an appeal stage will remain suspended until the entire appeal process before the Environment and Planning Tribunal or the Court of Appeal is exhausted.

"The revision of the present law will ensure that there is no construction in a case where a permit is still in an appeal stage,” he said.

“Furthermore, the review will ensure that the appeal process is faster where decisions are taken in the shortest possible time, with the aim of making the process itself fairer to all."

The review follows highly publicised and controversial cases where construction that went ahead while its permit was being appealed was later declared to be illegal by the Tribunal or the Court.

One such example is the case of a hotel in Mellieħa that was completed only to be later struck down in Court. However, the additional floors pertaining to the hotel have not been dismantled, and the property has since been put up for sale.

This month, the issue once again made headlines when a person applied to sanction two penthouses in a development in Sannat that were declared illegal by Court. The Planning approved the sanctioning, in a decision that has been criticised as "making a mockery of the Courts."

Prime Minister Robert Abela had announced the review back in September 2023, describing it as a “fairer system for planning appeals”.

However, an initial proposal proved highly controversial, as it limited the appellants’ legal arguments to those initially presented as a representation to the Planning Authority.

Critics argued that this undermined the reform by limiting their ability to make legal arguments.