PA chief denies conflict of interest in links with hotelier

Planning Authority executive chairman Johann Buttigieg has downplayed links he and his wife have with hotelier Adrian Buttigieg, whose Mellieħa hotel was granted a two-storey extension last November by Mepa.

Reservation forms seen by this newspaper show that a stay by Johann Buttigieg at the Royal Garden Hotel in London 2014, when he was then Mepa CEO, was booked by his friend’s company.

Sources said the pair went to London to watch a football match between Chelsea and Manchester United.

The Mepa head has however insisted that he paid for the hotel himself and that the hotelier, who owns La Salita and Maritim Antonine hotels in Mellieħa, did not gain anything from the arrangement. He said the two had been travelling partners long before his appointment to public office.

“I categorically deny that La Salita Holding Ltd hosted this trip. The company has not gained anything from this alleged arrangement. The only application and permission that was granted to Adrian Buttigieg was the extension of the hotel in Mellieħa [Maritim Antonine], which extension is clearly in line with current policy.

“The undersigned was not involved in the processing of this application nor in the...