MEPA changing policies without consulting stakeholders – Labour

Labour’s spokesman for MEPA Roderick Galdes said over the last few months the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, MEPA, has come to decisions to make changes in policies or in the interpretations of policies, without communicating with direct stakeholders such as architects, applicants and the general public.

Galdes said that as a result, applicants and their architects are facing tribunals without being sure whether their application complies with MEPA regulations, even after they have met with the Director of Planning and were supposed to have a clear direction of how to move. 

Disagreements between the tribunals and the Director of Planning are resulting in applications that have already been reviewed to be changed at the last minute causing unnecessary red tape and longer time intervals to get an application approved by MEPA.

Galdes said that where large projects were concerned, several months of discussions were being rendered useless as decisions are being changed on the interpretation of MEPA delegates.

“The MEPA reform was supposed to facilitate and simplify the process of planning rather than increase waiting time,” Galdes said.

The Labour Party, he added, is calling for all changes in policies to be transparent and for consultation to occur with direct stakeholders.