Din l-Art Helwa 'shocked' at Planning Authority's legal arguments against Townsquare appeal

Environmental NGO Din l-Art Helwa has said it is “shocked” at the Planning Authority’s legal argument that green NGOs, the Sliema local council and the Environment and Resources Authority had no right to appeal the approval of the proposed Townsquare skyscraper.

PA lawyer Robert Abela told the appeals tribunal on Thursday that the parties had no right to appeal as they had already been represented on the Planning Board by the ERA when the controversial Sliema project was given the green light in June.

On the day of the approval, ERA chairman Victor Axiak was not present due to medical reasons. The ERA later announced that it would appeal the decision, arguing that it had “sufficient legal and substantive arguments” to do so.

“Din l-Art Helwa is shocked that the PA attempted to argue that environmental NGOs have no right to appeal major projects such as this, since a member of the Planning Board represents the e-NGO sector as a whole,” DLH said in a statement. “The right of NGOs to appeal is enshrined in the new [MEPA demerger] legislation, which was approved by Parliament only recently. The right to appeal was flagged by the government as one of the major improvements of the recent MEPA demerger.

“Contrary to what has been promised by the government, the PA is blatantly trying to deny access to justice in environmental matters for e-NGOs, which is also a fundamental principle of the Aarhus Convention.”