An illegal dumping site in Ta’ Qali, used to deposit construction waste for the past decade, continues to expand, despite the Planning Authority’s (PA) multiple direct enforcement actions and tens of thousands of euro in unpaid fines.
The 13,000sqm site, which used to be an agricultural field in Vjal l-Istadium Nazzjonali, continues to serve as a dumping ground and storage space for disused vehicles, even though the PA claimed that the site was cleared and blocked off to prevent further dumping two years ago.
Repeated enforcement actions were announced to much public fanfare by the PA over the years – once in 2024, another time in 2021, and another time in 2016. Based on what the site looks like today, those enforcement actions were basically useless.
The addition of a gate, a letterbox, and a house name also suggests that the site has been formalised even further – the opposite of what the PA had publicly claimed.
Left: a 2016 Google Maps StreetView photo showing the ‘entrance’ to the site. Right: a photo of the gate at the entrance of the site.
According to the pending enforcement notice, issued six years ago, Bryden and Joseph Azzopardi are responsible for “depositing inert material and other material on an agricultural field, as well as a deposit of a vehicle on a scheduled site”. An earlier notice from 2016 confirms the PA has been aware of the site’s illegalities for over a decade.
By 2024, the site’s illegalities had led to the accumulation of €87,000 in unpaid fines. According to the PA’s website, daily fine payments and direct action bills are still due, meaning the amount owed to the PA continues to increase while the site remains full of waste.
The site as seen from Vjal l-Istadium Nazzjonali.
Given the sheer size of the site, the vast amount of debris which was dumped in it since the PA’s last enforcement action in January 2024, and the lack of effective punitive measures for repeat offenders, it is likely that any future attempts at clearing the area and restoring it to its natural status will be virtually impossible after a decade of abuse.
“They removed some of the illegalities on the site, and then they stopped. All these theatrical displays of enforcement, and they still let them do what they want,” one of The Shift’s readers told the newsroom, adding that the site has continued to expand.
The Shift’s verifications proved this to be correct.
