1,247 development permits granted in election month

The Planning Authority approved a total of 1,247 planning applications since the Prime Minister announced the election on 1 May and voting day on 3 June.

This means that around 249 permits were issued on a weekly basis, a significant spike when compared with the permits that were issued since the start of the year.

The data was tabled in Parliament by planning minister Ian Borg in response to a parliamentary question by Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi.

Borg dismissed any suggestions of wrongdoing, arguing that criticism aimed at the PA in this regard is unfair.

“There has been some media spin surrounding the number of applications that were submitted or approved during that month,” he said. “An intelligent question would be to ask whether any of these applications should have been rejected had the PA made its decision on any other month.

“When the PA acts efficiently, it gets criticised for it. When it doesn’t act efficiently, such as under the previous PN administration, then complaints are aired at it because it is inefficient.”

Read more: Spike in development permits since election announcement