Din l-Art Ħelwa calls for Mepa reform

Din l-Art Ħelwa, the heritage and environment trust, has passed a resolution calling for reform and restructuring at Mepa.

This message was also stressed at last Saturday's AGM by Martin Galea, DLĦ executive president, who insisted that political parties must be specific in their proposals for reforming Mepa and making the planning process more open, clear and consistent.

"We would expect a stronger, more independent Mepa, which will protect the rights of residents as well as those of the developer. The sustainable balance must be found," he said.

"Mepa is under fire from all sides. Whilst understanding that planning is generally controversial at the best of times, it is clear that the majority have recognised that there has been too much development which has now affected our quality of life and that the balance must now swing back towards conservation, protection of our natural and historical assets and towards the public good.

"We can no longer allow unbridled development. While the majority of projects decided by Mepa have been acceptable, there have been some high profile blunders which have dented its credibility badly."

Mr Galea said DLĦ had been meeting the Minister of Environment on a regular basis along with other NGOs, and this has culminated in a number of reforms which will make the planning process more transparent.

"While it is clear that some reform has been made and that some further reform is proposed in party manifestos, clear guidelines must be given to the boards, whether the Development Control Commission, the Planning boards or the Appeals boards, of what is acceptable," he said.

Once an ODZ area has been designated it should be the rarest of circumstances to grant a development permit. The same must apply for an Urban Conservation Area (UCA), where demolition is occurring far too frequently.

DLĦ calls for an independent study into Mepa's composition, structure and processes to ensure that those selected to serve on the boards and commissions reflect more closely the different components of civil society. It also asks that Mepa's procedures and systems be stringently tightened up and amended as necessary "so that Outside Development Zone applications are rejected outright, illegal developments are never sanctioned, written guidelines and procedures are scrupulously followed and enforcement procedures are rigorously implemented".

In a second resolution, DLĦ calls for an urgent rethink of urban planning and building standards as recently laid out by the Chamber of Architects, which it applauded for highlighting the damage done to Malta's natural and cultural heritage in its report The Urban Challenge.