The chairman's mandate

Austin Walker has just been appointed chairman of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. He has a clear mandate. In its last electoral programme the Nationalist Party specifically pledged that, if re-elected to government, it would ensure that Mepa undergoes a radical overhaul with a view to offering a more efficient and consistent planning service as part of a major administrative reform.

It is commonly perceived that development control remains undermined by excessive bureaucracy to the detriment of applicants who consistently claim that development applications take too long to be determined while planning decisions remain inconsistent.

Applications for development, once submitted, are transmitted to case officers, whose role is to assess whether the request for development satisfies the key direction of the Local Plan governing the specific location. In parallel, case officers also refer to other supporting design guidelines. Finally, the officer suggests to the Development Control Commission whether the development should be allowed or rejected.

The DCC will then take cognisance of the contents of the report prepared by the case officer and the counter views expressed by the applicant (or his architect) prior to making a decision.

The commission may well decide against the recommendation of the officer, provided there is sound planning justification.

It is common knowledge that case officers vetting planning applications continue to base their assessments entirely on the quantitative guidelines set out in the myriad of policy documents with little regard, if any, being given to past planning decisions tied to similar requests.

It is for this reason that Mepa continues to be perceived as lacking a coherent and consistent planning decision framework because case law unequivocally suggests that a significant percentage of decisions made by the DCC are in conflict with the negative recommendations filed by case officers.

The new chairman must therefore ensure that the appointed commissions continue to demonstrate their ability in securing reasonable judgments, acknowledging that every development application is driven by specific circumstances, which may well vary according to the location and site context.

Quantitative standards should therefore be considered and applied to the particular situation.

Mepa itself, in the recently-enacted Policy and Design Guidance 2007, recognised that standards may be relaxed provided that the objectives of the policy are still attained.

The same document stipulates that decision-making bodies may exercise flexibility in application of such guidelines, provided that departure from such guidelines is noted in writing.

In other words, planning decision bodies should be enticed to negotiate solutions with applicants in the knowledge that established quantitative standards cannot be interpreted in a vacuum. If Mepa is to ensure that applicants are entitled to a sound and fair process, the new chairman must ensure that a sound working relationship between the DCCs and architects should prevail while the commission's role is not reduced to a mere checklist!

Mr Walker, whose professional track record is uncontested, will only relish his mandate if individual applications bearing merits similar to already-established planning decisions are confined to the same set of circumstances while decision-making bodies exercise their judicious assessment prior to each and every decision.

Applicants are owed an explanation for past planning decisions (provided they remained legally valid) in the case of applications whose merits were similar to their case.

It is only in this way that consistency, accountability and efficiency in the planning process will be secured. This is what my party pledged in the run-up the election last March.

Mr Musumeci, an architect by profession, is the (Nationalist) mayor of Siġġiewi.