'Over 2,000 development permits in last quarter of 2022' - Greens demand urgent local plans revision

ADPD – The Green Party is concerned about the over 2,000 development permits that were issued in the last quarter of 2022 and demanded an urgent revision of the 2006 local plans.

During a press conference in Marsaskala, ADPD insisted that the “unbridled” development taking place in such localities should be immediately curtailed in order not to degrade further the state of urban zones, which they said were no longer liveable.

They referenced the development permit statistics published earlier in the week that showed that more than 2,000 permits were issued in the last quarter of last year.

The total number of permits issued represents an increase of 30% over the same quarter the previous year. Marsaskala topped the list with over 200 permits, most of which were for apartments.

ADPD Public Relations Officer and Marsaskala resident Brian Decelis said that many of these applications are being made thanks to the rationalisation exercise of 2006, when large swathes of land that until then were considered outside of the development zone, were slated for development.

Decelis said that the exercise had not included any environmental impact studies and that the cumulative impact of the proposed development had not been considered.

He added that the EU SEA (Strategic Environment Assessment) directive – which came into force a few days after the Maltese Parliament approved the rationalisation exercise, had been completely ignored.

Decelis questioned whether Malta needs this large scale of development. “Why do we need to destroy every piece of land that speculators lay their hands on?”

“While this exercise had been approved by the Nationalist Government, one would have expected a Labour Government that claims it is in favour of open spaces and that it strives for a better quality of life to reverse the rationalisation immediately and that undeveloped land is protected once again,” Decelis said.

He said that like in the case of the marina project in Marsaskala, that had been scrapped by the government due to public pressure by civil society, there was a need for the the “building frenzy madness” to come to an end.

“We hope that the embellishment of the promenade along the coast, announced on the eve of the last election, is carried out at the earliest to provide a source of relaxation and pleasure to the residents and visitors to this locality. There is also the need for curtailing the commercialization of public spaces along the coast, including on pavements,” concluded Decelis.

ADPD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said that development in residential zones should prioritise the quality of life of the residents that already live in those localities.

“What is happening in Marsaskala is being carried out in other localities as indicated by the statistics published this week about the applications for new building permits,” Cacopardo said.

He said that the lack of proper land use planning had “plagued” Malta for many years. Cacopardo remarked that too much land had been developed, including a lot of arable land, as well as gardens and public spaces.

“We are duty bound to ensure that this is stopped. As a consequence, Malta – and to a certain extent even Gozo – has become one continuous mass of buildings. The destruction continues.”

Cacopardo stated that one of the major problems that resulted from the overdevelopment was that the floods in certain localities, whenever a storm occurred.

He said that fields that used to soak up rainwater, for it to seep through and accumulate in the water table, had been destroyed.

“More rainwater is ending up on our roads, flooding all those who live in low-lying areas, also thanks to the fact that cisterns and wells have become rare. As a consequence, our roads are flooded, and sewage overflows, especially with heavy rainfall,” Cacopardo said.

He argued that in order to reduce traffic from the roads, the urban zones had to become self-sufficient. Cacopardo said that small retail outlets had been driven out of business by large commercial centres and supermarkets, which were all encouraged by the land use planning policies.

“It is useless to make lovely declarations on the value of agricultural land – as we read in the Agricultural Land Reform document – when the destruction of such land continues at an accelerated pace,” Cacopardo said.

He added that this had the blessing of the Planning Authority which continuously valued the land based on the speculators’ whims.

“The Planning Authority is an accomplice to the increased destruction of our environment. We need to safeguard what remaining agricultural land we have.”

He said that it was futile to invest €700 million in open spaces if undeveloped land continued to be destroyed in a systemic manner while there were many dilapidated buildings across the islands.

According to the ADPD Chairperson, the urbanisation was being carried out according to plans that were obsolete. The first local plan was enacted in 1995, and the latest one in 2006.

“Local plans need to be revised as a matter of urgency. We do not afford to keep postponing this revision indefinitely,” Cacopardo concluded.