I hold no brief for Patrick Dalli, whom I only know slightly as a budding artist, but I do not think that his case is made any worse by the fact that his controversial farmhouse is Outside Development Zone. Actually farmhouses cannot be built in a “development zone” and can only be built in ODZ.

This latter term, which, I remember, started as a jocular term, has infiltrated local planning terminology but is not an official town and country planning term.

The development zones include the recognised town and village built-up areas with their existing cores and limited planned extensions, use zoning, height and other outline regulations, commercial and industrial zones, and so on. ODZ, or more correctly country planning zones, do not normally provide for detailed specific uses but would make provisions for agricultural uses, parks and recreational areas, large establishments such as hospitals, schools and playing fields and other uses which would not find space in the limited development zones.

This does not mean that in outside development zones anything goes. Here the environment is the prime consideration. We have to have farms, power stations, quarries, refuse disposal and sewage treatment plants. These are seldom works of art. But careful siting and detailing can go a long way.