Legal notice extending planning applications should be revoked: Moviment Graffitti

Moviment Graffitti have called for the revocation of a legal notice extending planning applications by three years.

“The publication of this legal notice was carried out without any public consultation. Given that legal notices do not require Parliamentary approval before coming into effect, the government has effectively turned this into a strategy that is uses to pass legislative changes under the radar,” the NGO said.

Last Friday, the government published Legal Notice 263 of 2023, which provides a three-year blanket extension to all planning applications that were set to expire by the end of next year.

“While Prime Minister Robert Abela was busy congratulating himself for a ‘positive meeting’ with Moviment Graffitti activists at the height of the action in Mosta earlier this week, his planning minister was busy with quietly appeasing the same developers who are responsible for the destruction of our environment,” the NGO said.

Moviment Graffitti strongly condemned the blanket amnesty “since it will only serve to enable development which has been pending for years based on the thin excuse that many projects were halted due to the interruption of global supply chains.”

“It is also important to note that permits which were approved long ago and will be given an additional three-year extension will not be subjected to planning policies which were implemented after the permit was approved,” the NGO said.

The NGO said It is also important to note that permits which were approved long ago and will be given an additional three-year extension will not be subjected to planning policies which were implemented after the permit was approved.

“We are not surprised by the fact that this legal notice is clearly the result of yet more lobbying from the Malta Developers’ Association (MDA),” it said.