Coalition of NGOs urge citizens to pressure MPs on planning reforms

A group of NGOs from the Ġustizzja għal Artna campaign have called on the public to pressure Members of Parliament with demands to oppose the government’s planning reforms.

To facilitate the outreach campaign, activists part of the campaign have made a pre-drafted email available, designed to make it as easy as possible for constituents to contact their representatives. The email explicitly calls on MPs to demonstrate that their loyalty lies “with the people, not with developers.”

The planning bills were first suggested in September, introducing two planning bills that environmentalists have strongly opposed. Bill 143 would hand powers to the Planning Authority, effectively undermining local plans and paving the way for development across the country.

Bill 144, presented as a reform of the appeals process, would make it harder for citizens to challenge decisions, creating new obstacles and taking away the Court’s ability to revoke permits.

A second planning protest by the coalition is set to take place on Monday 27 October at 5:30pm outside the law courts in Valletta before marching towards parliament, where the government is expected to present its annual Budget.

The pre-written email states that the “reforms have been proposed without public consultation, seek to dismantle the few protections that currently safeguard the natural and built environment, and clearly favour developers and speculators at the expense of the public good.”

The email also lists ten concerns on the reforms, including the powers handed to the Planning Authority and Minister, bypassing existing laws, new policies would no longer need to follow Local Plans, and planning decisions would no longer need to take environmental or sanitary considerations into account.

They also said that the public right to appeal would be severely restricted, highlighting that citizens would have just 20 days to file an appeal or risk facing a fine of €5,000 could be imposed, with no chance to contest it.

It was also pointed out that if a court appeal lasts more than five months, any construction carried out after that time would automatically become legal, whilst all sorts of illegal development, including in sensitive areas such as ODZ and UCA, will be either regularised or given a concession.

In the email, the MPs are called to “withdraw these draft bills and the proposed legal notices immediately and introduce without delay a measure suspending works on developments approved by the PA while an appeal is ongoing.”

The Ġustizzja għal Artna campaign brings together several major NGOs and environmental groups, including BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, Moviment Graffitti, and Nature Trust – FEE Malta, among others.