MEPA’s new compromise penalty is ‘institutionalised’ planning abuse

Astrid Vella: ‘49% of Maltese who are disillusioned by government’s environment track record is set to grow’

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar said a new legal notice allowing MEPA to reduce fines imposed for planning abuse reverses the introduction in 2011 of stricter daily fines.

MaltaToday first reported last week of a controversial legal notice allowing the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to discount fines imposed on planning illegalities. 

The law obliges MEPA to seek public consultation before any changes to planning policy are approved by the government but in this case MEPA claims that the changes were directly proposed by the government.
Through the new legal notice MEPA will be given the power to accept or refuse requests by owners of illegal buildings to pay a “compromise penalty” instead of the daily fines which under the law can reach up to €50 a day.

FAA spokesperson Astrid Vella said the government was inviting abusers to make submissions to “specify the impelling reason or reasons why the penalty established in the [2011] notice should not be paid, as well as the manner in which the fine is to be varied.”

“Since when do we allow wrongdoers to decide their own punishment?” Vella asked.

A MEPA committee is to be set up to deal with these requests, however no policies or parameters have been published in order to guide this committee in an accountable and equitable manner.

Vella added that the legal notice, issued by government directly, bypassed MEPA’s public consultation system.

“This is a very ominous development which has already been used when government invited developers to submit projects for land reclamation, side-stepping the need to issue a policy subject to consultation and EU scrutiny.

“Along with the ‘planning amnesty’ announced in February 2015 to sanction up to 10,000 long-standing illegal developments, this latest reduction of fines is yet another policy reinforcing the message to the public that in Malta crime pays.”

In October 2014 MEPA removed obligations for developers to obtain consent of at least 75% of neighbours in cases of changes in zoning or street alignment. Last week, MEPA announced a downgrading of Traffic Impact Assessment requirements to introduce a simplified traffic statement even for large projects.

Vella said the policies had been drafted with the aim of facilitating more development, with no consideration for the long-term benefit of residents or for Malta’s environment.

“As if to prove this point, this Thursday the MEPA Board is to debate applications for boathouses at Dwejra, Gozo, which had been refused in 2011. These cases were going through the Appeals Tribunal – how they are to appear before the MEPA Board is anybody’s guess.

“The boathouse saga all over our islands is synonymous with environmental mismanagement, poor governance, political manipulation, cronyism and lack of political courage. The fact that these refused applications are being reconsidered now, speaks volumes. The 49% of Maltese who are disillusioned by government’s environment track record is set to grow.”