Will Mepa reform right wrongs of the past?

The belated Mepa reform is in itself and without a shred of doubt a positive step in the right direction but one cannot look at the whole thing in isolation. Mepa wasn't created yesterday, its problems and inconsistencies haven't just fizzled into thin air and the mess it has left behind won't just disappear at a flick of a finger.

That is precisely why I firmly believe that all this Mepa reform brouhaha has to be seen in the real context that we've experienced in these last few years.

The reform on its own or as presented does not promise to right the wrongs perpetrated in the recent past, it does not seem to notice that this small island has been uglified to the limits and now more than ever looks like an unfinished concrete matchbox jungle.

It seems to have forgotten the fact that once pretty and traditional villages have all made way to uncontrollable development with Mepa's blessing.

Will this reform ensure that blunders and mistakes won't be repeated?

The people haven't forgotten the Transfiguration Street melodrama in Lija when Mepa seemed to give the go-ahead for yet another block of flats bang in the middle of another quaint and charming town only to reverse its decision sometime later. Nor have they forgotten the recent case of another application to build a block of flats in an area which should have been designated for villas in Balzan.

The point is that Malta and more so Mepa cannot afford any more of these pathetic "mistakes".

This reform, as well-intentioned as it may be, will never bring down the horrid towers built or being built all around the island.

Will this reform heal the wounds of injustice? How could resident "A" living in the same street, on the same side with a house touching that of resident "B", not be allowed to do an alteration on his house or add a floor when "B" has been allowed to do so? Who took these decisions?

And now that this authority seems to be facing the moment of truth, will these same people be accountable and resign or will they do like what many before them have always done and hide behind the huge bureaucratic maze and retain their posts?

Then there is that blessed ODZ which is supposedly an outside development zone and yet on which, for one reason or another, many developments totally unrelated to farming have been allowed to go ahead, the latest being the villa in Baħrija which even if revoked would now leave an environmental scar and irremediably destroy the habitat right in the middle of this beautiful valley!

The same is happening all over the island where tracts of land on an ODZ are being destroyed after the application finds some loophole to slither through! Will these properties/rooms/swimming pools be removed now that the reform proposes a "zero tolerance" attitude on an ODZ, or will the government just accept them as shameless monuments of disregard and defiance towards the ODZ policy?

Yes, the reform has to go on as it is in our interest that it does so. But stopping the rot is not going to be enough; we have to reverse the rot and those who were at the forefront of defending these decisions which have irreversibly damaged Malta's face have to be held accountable and removed. If we're thinking that 20 years of bureaucracy and decisions - reminiscent of what the PN opposed so strongly in its pre-1987 days - will just wither away, we're only taking ourselves for a long and bitter ride!