The Ministry for Tourism, Culture and the Environment has published a draft document for public consultation specifying the strategic objectives to guide the formulation of the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED), which is intended to replace the current Structure Plan.

It is expected that with the adoption of the new spatial planning regime, the new planning framework should go beyond traditional land use planning, bringing together and integrating policies for the development and use of land with other policies and programmes that influence the nature of places and how they function. It has to take into account environmental, social and economic issues to inform the spatial planning process. This tool can therefore achieve the aims of sustainable development through synergy of the various sectors and activities having an impact on the use of land whether directly or indirectly.

This is fundamentally different to the old system that essentially looked at development considerations with a more narrow focus – only issues that were material to land use and development were assessed in determining planning applications and other factors were ignored. It still not clear how this step change will be fully achieved in practice since the document appears still to compartmentalise issues sectorially.

In determining applications for development permission it must be made absolutely clear that new issues will have to be taken into account such as energy use and conservation, air quality, CO2 emissions, biodiversity, health indicators, water conservation, etc.

The document takes into account other plans and programmes but does not seem to set strategic guidance for eventual updating of the other plans to fall in line with the new strategic direction.

The document does not go so far as to set guidance for economic development and investment required to bring existing communities at par in terms of socio-economic development in the existing urban regions. We still experience this north-south divide with the historic cores being depopulated (Valletta and the Three Cities) while other areas in the south bear impacts from large infrastructural developments and the north, where new influx of residents has given rise to further investment for upgrading and embellishment. This is an important strategic issue that needs to be dealt with.

The SPED should also require identification of areas that are derelict, having a high percentage of vacancy, having low space standards, in multiple ownership and do not provide decent accommodation, where the intervention of the government is required to acquire the property for redevelopment with the participation of the private sector and the involvement of the current owners who would benefit from a return on their holding.

It is only through this measure that one can hope to arrest the decline of population numbers in places like Valletta and the Three Cities. There are other areas where such interventions may be required, places like Ħamrun, Sliema and Qormi. It would be the role of local plans’ update to identify these areas.

At the local level, there needs to be better integration of development plans with the aspirations of the local communities, involving more closely local councils in their formulation. The adoption of SPED requires the integration of other plans and actions in the various economic sectors if real change is to be achieved and which fully adopts sustainable development principles.