Illegal batching plants to continue without permits for at least 4 years

Tista taqra dan l-artiklu bil-Malti.

Illegal tarmac and concrete batching plants spread across Malta and Gozo are set to remain unregulated and in a state of illegality for years to come,  according to new proposals fronted by Environment Minister Miriam Dalli.

After five years of drafting a proposal on regulating illegally built and toxic batching plants, Dalli has now suggested that all illegal plants be given a “grace period” of four years to comply with the new rules that are yet to be finalised.

In a bid to regularise illegal batching plants, mostly producing tarmac and ready-mix concrete, the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) has put forward a ‘consultation brief’.

The proposal, open to feedback from the public until April, states that when the rules come into force – a still-undisclosed date – illegal batching plants will be able to operate for another four years before they are required to start the sanctioning process by filing a formal application.

Such sites are mainly operated by large-scale developers and contractors who have already been running the sites illegally for years, in some cases decades.

17 illegal plants pending since 2019

Five years ago, in 2019, the then-minister responsible for the Planning Authority, Ian Borg, announced a plan to regulate illegal batching plants.

Following media reports about how the Planning Authority and other state entities had allowed Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli to build an illegal concrete batching plant on public land in Kercem, Borg promised action against some 17 plants.

“It looks like we have a problem with many of the batching plants, including the one [in Gozo] the planning minister said in November 2019 about Portelli’s.

“I told the Authority (PA) that I will defend no illegalities,” Borg had said while promising decisive action.

Nothing has been done since then, and all the batching plants operating illegally in 2019 continue today.