I remember switching on the television some years ago and seeing a battalion of bulldozers gnawing away at some illegal construction on the beach. It looked like a serious demolition job, what with those bulldozers and we-mean-business demolition men manning the controls of their machines. All that was missing was Miley Cyrus swinging along on her wrecking ball. The newscaster informed us in grave tones that this was Mepa’s direct action against an illegal concrete platform which had been built on the beach at Surfside in Sliema.

I didn’t really know what to expect – but the impression given by the close-ups of those juddering mechanical claws bashing away at the concrete was that the beach would be restored to its original, pristine state. The next day, I looked down at the rocks, expecting them to be devoid of concrete and definitely missing a concrete platform. However, the said platform was still very much in evidence, minus a small triangle which had been removed in much the same way you would nick a sliver of cake from the tin.

I got the same feeling of anti-climax when I watched the latest episode in the Mepa vs Polidano Production series. There they all were – the rows of wrecking machines, the armed guards, the full force of the law against a man who has been metaphorically sticking up his middle finger to it for the last 20-odd years. Charles Polidano is the man who famously said that he built Malta, omitting to mention the details of how he built it.

The little matter of building on public land (the Solemar Hotel), the Xemxija bypass debacle and the horrendously kitsch (and illegal) reproduction of the De Redin tower are some works which bear the Polidano signature. Well, after years and years of this kind of building, when there’s barely a lick of ODZ land that isn’t overshadowed by some high-rise or pretend ‘agriturismo’, the powers that be at Mepa suddenly decide they won’t tolerate this for one second more and launch Operation Pulverise Polidano.

I’m not so sure about this exercise having the desired effect and managing to strike fear in the hearts of erring developers. Due to a request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction (made practically before the bulldozers arrived on site), the demolition works were halted before any illegal constructions of note had been knocked down. There was the usual last-minute legal reprieve, and the end result was that maybe a couple of courses of a brick wall were knocked down and it will be back to business as usual until the government decides it’s time to polish its green credentials.

The truth of the matter is that the Labour Party is obviously beholden to the construction lobby

Well, thanks for the amateur dramatics but it’s going to take a lot more than a bunch of men behind big (and unused) demolition machinery to convince anyone that the Labour government is even mildly interested in the environment.

It is useless for parliamentary secretary Michael Farrugia to try and come across as tough and no-nonsense vis-à-vis illegal development, when every single ‘planning’ policy an­nounc­ed by the Labour government to date is geared towards propping up the ailing construction industry.

It was like this from the word ‘Go’; Labour leapt out of the starting blocks and continued cosying up to their construction buddies – the amount of the latter’s campaign contributions we are not privy too.

First we had a call for expressions of interest in land reclamation – a project that will come at a huge environmental cost and which we do not need. Then there was the hilariously euphemistic ‘agritourism’ planning policy – whereby people owning up to 60 tumoli of land can get to build 10 rooms and a swimming pool on what was previously virgin ODZ countryside.

Farrugia took great pains to tell us that Mepa would adopt a “zero tolerance” policy in the case of ODZ developments, and enforcement would be stepped up. Half the enforcement officers’ complement will be earmarked to ensure there was no abuse in ODZ areas.

Who does this man think he is kidding? As the fiasco at Montekristo Estates has shown us, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men didn’t manage to knock down one lousy reproduction De Redin tower, and Farrugia is talking about zero tolerance?

He’s going to open up the ODZ for development and expect to retain some semblance of control when developers don’t play nice?

I really hate it when politicians insult our intelligence in this way. The truth of the matter is that the Labour Party is obviously beholden to the construction lobby.

In a rather pathetic attempt to shake off the ‘developer’s lackey’ tag, the government occasionally treats us to a spot of direct action drama where nothing gets done.

If any politician manages to effect any positive change in this regard, we should give him the Gieħ ir-Repubblika. In the meantime, we can expect more tasteful reproductions (why not a copy of the Acropolis or the pyramids on ODZ areas?) and more fluff from the building lobby’s new BF – the Labour government.

cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.