Stand up and be counted!

Environmental activism no longer belongs exclusively to the greens or to fringe groups, inspired by the legendary stunts of Greenpeace and the like. Now they include ordinary citizens, who are not happy minding their own business. Mark Micallef, meets one such citizen, Asrtid Vella, who recently fronted one of the biggest environmental rallies in years.

It was a course in Baroque architecture that sparked it off for Astrid Vella. Although she had inherited her father's passion for architecture, up until recently she was nothing like your stereotypical front-line environmentalist. She might have attended a few demonstrations but that was it.

But following a year-long battle with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) over the demolition of a 300-year-old house in Ghar il-Lembi Street, Sliema, she got "sucked into", as she calls it, the setting up of the recently founded lobby group Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, which organised and led a protest march in Valletta two weekends ago.

"I think I'd better try to smile," she tells the photographer, as she stands still for her interview picture to be taken in front of what is left of the old mansion - just the façade - at the Pjazzetta in Sliema. "I don't want us to come across as too militant and negative."

It is a fitting location for the picture. There is a new application to develop the abandoned site three years after the developer, Gasan Enterprises Ltd, was refused permission to develop the whole area into a residential complex.

"Most of the building was demolished... but no steps were taken, obviously. Even though the façade is one of the few scheduled buildings in Sliema, now the developer has applied again to demolish the façade and build a 15-storey building instead. This block really represents what I am about," she continues, maintaining her posture for another shot.

"I just felt that I had to do something... my conscience did not let me remain silent."

One thing led to another and a spur-of-the-moment open letter to the newspapers on the environment, which eventually garnered some 400 signatures, sparked the setting up of the FAA and eventually the environmental march.

There were 800 to 1,000 people present, including Gozitans who came down from the sister island the day before. More importantly, however, the march brought together 17 environmental NGOs around a battle cry which calls for a serious crackdown on environmental abuse.

The main political parties, but especially the government, are understandably keeping a watchful eye on developments since, like the residents of Qui-Si-Sana - who recently gave the PN a hard time at the local council elections - most of this new breed of activists seem to fit the profile of the PN constituent.

But the FAA is not an elitist group, Mrs Vella explains: "We are trying to fight this image... that we are just a bunch of Slimizi, just wanting to deal with the issues of our neighbourhood... we are giving support to people from Gozo to Birzebbuga. In fact, we are being approached by a lot of people from the south where there are a number of development problems."

The group, she continues, is there to raise awareness about the environment but also to help regular citizens and neighbourhood groups deal with Mepa when they are contesting a development.

"Mepa's regulations have made the organisation a Byzantine labyrinth; it lets you in but once you're in you're lost."

A recent case was the support the FAA gave to the group of residents from St Anne Square in Sliema, who managed to force the authority to reconsider a permit it had issued for a development next door.

"That is a landmark case and the credit goes to Chris Vassallo (the man who led the group of residents) for his persistence. Three weeks before this case turned up, I was trying to invoke the same article 39A of the Development Planning Act, which says that permits can be revoked in cases where wrong information is submitted by developers. Basically, I was being told by Mepa officials that the law is redundant because it has never been used.

"Can you believe it? So what if it hasn't been used? Get off your bikes and use it."

In fact, a Mepa reform is high on the group's wish list. "Both parties, when in government, have strengthened regulations in favour of developers and weakened the position of the ordinary man in the street.

"Basically, we feel that Mepa needs to have a proper help desk and a system, similar to that in court, by which objectors would have legal aid... someone who knows the rules and who can guide objectors.

"The big developers, especially, have the experts and know the system inside out so it's a grave injustice to leave the regular citizen to fight unarmed."

But there is more. "We are strongly against politicians being on the Mepa board and we believe there should be NGOs instead. We are also against the fact that there are practising architects who sit on the boards.

"In the case of the baroque house the same architect who sat on the Development Control Commission sat on the Heritage Advisory Committee and a second architect who testified in favour of the demolition sat on the appeals board.

"This not to mention the fact that there are a number of regulations which go against the individual objector and favour developers. This has been said by the Ombudsman and the Mepa auditor, not just the FAA."

After the protest, the group now intends to carry on with its petition calling for development to be restricted in the long-term interests of the country. She would not reveal what kind of support the group has received for the petition so far, saying it is too early and that it would be "shooting from the hip" to come up with figures just yet.

However, given the support the open letter received - the one that set the cogs in motion - the optimism runs high.

"We are practically euphoric. We have had an overwhelming response not only on the day but even after. The effect of the rally was not only the crowd, which turned out to be three times what we were told to expect, but rather that people now are more confident that they have a role in moulding their environment and not having it imposed on them."

The group plans to present the petition to local and EU institutions to force some sort of policy change that would curb development.

Although there has been great progress in certain areas, such as waste disposal, the current situation, she insists, is not sustainable and the present level of development is damaging both landscapes and health. People are forced to live in perpetual building sites because the minute one development stops another one starts.

"This is the quality of life we are talking about... I've just walked past an area which has four building sites within a space of 50 meters. We claim to be a European country but which European country would tolerate such a situation, jack-hammering day in, day out, dust and inconvenience!

"We are not talking about days here... we are talking about months and years with projects running back to back. Does anyone take a reading of the decibels being emitted during these works?

"This not to mention the fact that the character of the towns is being changed to make way for soulless buildings which have no care for aesthetics."

This takes the interview into personal territory, since most of the damage has been done and a large number of "Slimizi" either live in flats which replaced tasteful period architecture or made money from them.

After all, the apartment block she lives in, I point out, is likely to have replaced a town house.

"Actually, I am glad you ask this question. This apartment block replaced a house which was demolished by my great aunt's husband. We are talking about two generations ago.

"What can I say... thank God we progress and our mentality changes and we begin appreciating what our predecessors dismissed; we are talking about people who were born in the 1890s; you cannot really expect them to look at the architecture of the time with the same perspective.

"I have been asked why I didn't try to stop the demolition of that house. Because I was four when they pulled it down. Now, my husband and I have bought a house in Gozo, some 275 years old, which we are renovating, despite having the option to demolish and build flats instead.

"As for the Slimizi making money from demolishing town houses... you also have to factor in the pressures created by the rent laws."

The issue of development is a core concern for the lobby. In fact, it characterised the main trust of the protest, especially the part connected with the recently announced rationalisation of the development boundaries.

"The small redevelopments can be dealt with by Mepa on a case-by-case basis, taking account of the area's character and the authority's regulations. Enforced properly, however.

"But we need to have a moratorium on large-scale development... to be able to take stock of the situation and assess whether we need to develop further."

What about the government's argument that the process of redefining the development boundaries is there to tackle the injustices of the 1988 temporary schemes?

"I say by all means address injustice but address everyone's injustices. Why are only these people's injustices being addressed? What about rent law injustices? What about requisitioning injustices? After all these years only this group of people are having their problems addressed.

"The question is: Why these, why now?"

"Take the tas-Sellum area in Mellieha, for example. This is a case that goes back to Labour days. Before the election, a permit was issued for an area which should have never been covered by a permit. It turned out that the land, which is on the shoreline, is unstable. Contractors basically refuse to develop it."

The Cabinet suggested that this land be removed from the scheme and instead compensated for by including an equivalent piece of property elsewhere. "These people were short changed because of their bad judgement and they should have never bought that property in the first place. It's basically a private business, a bad deal... so now will all the people who were given a bad deal be compensated?

"But we come back to the same question. Why develop more land when we know that we have more than double the units we need till 2020?"

During the rally, the 500 available copies of the petition were taken up but others can be accessed at www.ambjentahjar.org.