Environmental organisation Din l-Art Ħelwa has called on the government to go back to the drawing board and publish a proper holistic strategic plan for the environment and development.

On March 18, the government launched the strategic plan for the environment and development (SPED) report for an eight-week public consultation.

The plan will eventually replace the 1992 Structure Plan and will regulate the sustainable use and management of sea resources in an integrated manner until 2020.

In a statement yesterday, Din l-Art Ħelwa said the plan issued by the government was not valid and was out of line with the legal requirements for the SPED.

The Environment and Development Planning Act 2010 clearly stated that the strategic plan should set out policies and include an explanatory memorandum giving a reasoned justification for each of the policies and proposals contained in the plans.

But the document issued by the government did not include the required policies, let alone any reasoned justification for them.

It only contained a list of objectives which were very similar to those published in 2012 by the previous administration in preparation for the Strategic Plan, the NGO said.

The 2012 document clearly stated that the objectives were only intended to “guide the policy formulation stage of the drawing up of a new SPED”. It was unacceptable for the same objectives to be presented by the government as the full strategic plan, it added.

“The government is attempting to show that it has fulfilled its environmental obligations by presenting the document it describes as the SPED for public consultation, when it has done nothing of the kind,” Din l-Art Ħelwa said.