Marlene Farrugia urges developers to backtrack from rampant construction

Partit Demokratiku leader Marlene Farrugia urged Malta’s developers to take a step back from the rampant state of construction on the island, warning that it is frustrating residents and slowly destroying the country’s identity.

Addressing Parliament during a debate on the Planning Authotiy’s budget, Farrugia hit out at the PA for its approval of a major residence development project on virgin land in Attard.

“That was the only green lung that Attard residents had, and it has now been snatched away from them,” she said. “The people who invested their money to buy a house in that area did so on the assumption that they were buying a house overlooking a field.”

She urged infrastructure minister Ian Borg and planning parliamentary secretary Chris Agius to turn the wheel – from a situation where developers lead the government by the nose into one of more cooperation between developers, government, residents and green NGOs.

“As it stands, it is developers themselves who are giving direction on the country’s development planning, and there is a lack of long-term infrastructural planning by the government,” she warned. “I urge developers to realize that Malta’s resources are limited and that over-development will end up ruining its identity, and to start co-operating more with the government, residents and NGOs towards a common sense approach.

“As every day passes, people are feeling more and more voiceless and helpless in the fact of such rampant development.”