Developer seeks sanctioning of illegal Qormi Wolt Market warehouse

Sean Montebello - 01. March. 2024

According to a Planning Authority enforcement notice, the Qormi distribution centre and warehouse for online supermarket Wolt Market has been operating illegally since its opening last year.

The distribution centre which fulfils customers’ grocery orders opened last September in the middle of a residential area. A Planning Authority enforcement notice was then issued, noting the developer had demolished walls, expanded the floorspace and turned it into a warehouse without a permit.

The site’s developers are now seeking to sanction all the illegalities, but residents have objected as it has increased commercial activity in the area, as well as traffic. This includes delivery trucks and noise pollution, particularly impacting those living in a four-storey residential apartment block overlooking the site.

The enforcement notice lists Wolt Services Malta and developers E&TM Company as contraveners. E&TM is owned by Thomas and Emanuel Mifsud of Ta’ Dernis Property.

Asked in parliament on Wednesday what action the Planning Authority would take on the illegal warehouse, newly appointed Planning Minister Clint Camilleri referred to the Planning Authority’s enforcement notice “which has daily fines.”

He said a Planning Authority application for the distribution centre’s sanctioning was submitted before the enforcement notice was issued and is pending evaluation. Responding to the question raised by opposition Nationalist Party MP Albert Buttigieg, Camilleri said, “It is also true that other regulatory authorities can take direct action.”

Developers E&TM have been named in several other controversial projects, including a proposal to construct a five-storey apartment block adjacent to a historic 17^th-century chapel in Żejtun, which received considerable opposition from locals in 2022. That proposal has since been withdrawn.

The developers were also behind the controversial application for a 38-room luxury hotel in Birkirkara, submitted to the Planning Authority last year. That project was suspended last September following public outcry.