Property in protected areas

I refer to the letter Expropriate Illegal Property (January 25) by Jimmy Magro, in which he makes a number of observations and recommendations on the two legal notices, the Scheduling of Penalties Regulations and the Daily Penalty Regulations, which have recently been published for public consultation.

While the Malta Environment and Planning Authority welcomes and will assess the recommendations submitted by Mr Magro, the authority would like to clarify that these draft regulations have to be read within the context of the enabling Environment and Planning Act and the provisions of Schedule 6 that were approved by Parliament in July 2010. The Schedule clearly spells out that it is prohibited that planning applications are submitted to the authority that seek to regularise illegal development carried out after May 2008 in protected areas and ODZ areas where the approved footprint has been exceeded, or on all scheduled properties.

The authority encourages the public to view the two draft legal notices on the authority’s website www.mepa.org.mt/public-consultation and submit feedback at finesandpenalties@mepa.org.mt by not later than February 11.