Concern about environment law enforcement

Environmental NGOs have voiced their concern on the dismantling of the planning authority's enforce-ment unit.

Pointing out that environmental law enforcement within the Malta Environment and Planning Auth-ority had already been very poor, Friends of the Earth Malta, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, the Ramblers Association, Nature Trust (Malta), BirdLife Malta and Din l-Art Ħelwa maintained that things would get worse and there would be a free-for-all situation as a result of such a strategy.

"This move simply shows Mepa's low level of commitment accorded to environmental protection, reducing the environment to a non-existent element within the authority," they said.

They were reacting to a recent story in The Sunday Times which reported that the enforcement unit was being dismantled and its employees distributed in various departments just five years after the authority made a €280,000 investment to improve its enforcement capacity.

According to the authority, the reshuffle of personnel is part of an internal restructuring that does not affect the service it provides. A spokesman said: "The trend is to reduce the arbitrary distinction between inspectors and policy officers in favour of a multi-tier system of environmental enforcement, where more specialised officers may be brought in as backup to frontline enforcement, even if they normally focus on policy related tasks".