Money for Irrestawra Darek façade restoration scheme ‘taken up within minutes’ – Minister
Planning Minister, Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, confirmed that the fund which helps owners restore their façade was “taken up within minutes.”
The Irrestawra Darek scheme reimburses owners of properties in Urban Conservation Areas and for scheduled Grade 1 and 2 properties, who want to restore their façades.
This year the Planning Authority made €5 million available, with €4 million for UCA residential properties and €1 million for scheduled properties.
The application window to apply for the scheme was open on Tuesday at noon, and it could only be submitted by the clients’ architects. The applications were granted on a first come first serve basis.
Many people took to social media to complain about how the portal on the PA website, where architects could submit their applications, was not working.
Popular Facebook page “Malta Dizastru TOTALI”, posted that the system to upload applications stopped working at 12:01, one minute after the application window opened.
Zrinzo Azzopardi responded to a Parliamentary question put forward by PN MP Albert
Buttigieg, asking why people were struggling to submit their applications as the page was not working.
The Minister said that the fact that the scheme closed so quickly showed how strong the scheme was, and said that this occurrence was a “massive vote of confidence”.
Zrinzo Azzopardi added that he was informed that there were over 350 applications, but he said that he will have more information about this later on.
Pressed by Buttigieg again, who pointed out that he had screenshots showing that the system had stopped at 12:01, Zrinzo Azzopardi said that he is “not in a position to answer on the way the system works”. He continued to insist that this was on a first come, first served basis.
Pressed by PN MP Toni Bezzina, who mentioned that there were rumours circulating that some architects were given permission to apply for this scheme 25 minutes before the application window opened, Zrinzo Azzopardi slammed Bezzina for alleging such a thing.
“Either you have proof or you do not come here and say such a thing in the highest institution in our country”, the Minister said, which caused quite a reaction among the government benches.
Zrizo Azzopardi clarified how there was an understanding with the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers ( Kamra talPeriti - KTP) that the application window was to open at noon.
When pressed by PN MP Darren Carabott, who asked Zrinzo Azzopardi why the PA, who would have known how many architects there are in Malta, did not strengthen their website to endure the site traffic, Zrinzo Azzopardi repeated that since it was on a first come first serve basis, all the funds available for the scheme were taken up.
In reaction, the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers (KTP) said that this scheme signalled the “epitome of the Planning Authority’s disregard for the profession.”
In a statement released by KTP, it also made a number of demands : That the PA issue an apology to all architects and clients; that it removes the first-come-first-serve basis system and reopens the scheme until the end of June 2023 which would allow those who did not “win the browser refresh lottery” to try again; that it draws from a lottery with all eligible applicants after June 2023 to determine who gets the funds; and that it immediately re-opens the scheme without an end date, where all applicants will be put on a waiting list until funds are made available again.
KTP said that “the online application platform collapsed within seconds under heavy traffic of users all trying to race each other at getting their applications through.”
It added that after two hours, the application form seemed to have disappeared from the website. KTP pointed out how the scheme wasted a full week of work for several architect studios, as they had got applications ready since they were worried that if they did not obtain the grant the clients would blame the architect and would not pay them.
“The Planning Authority launched this scheme without heeding any of the recommendations the Chamber had given it in past editions, including the removal of the first-come-firstserved basis, and keeping the scheme permanently open.”