Two new clauses within the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development (SPED) have rendered any improvements made to the protection of outside development zones “purely cosmetic”, according to Din l-Art Ħelwa.

The NGO has written to the government and Mepa calling for the clauses to be struck off.

The two clauses inserted in the Strategic Plan, currently under discussion in Parliament, state that where no other feasible alternatives exist in the urban area, development may be permitted in outside development zones.

Furthermore, projects which are of a sustainable nature are permitted in ODZ “as a last resort where it is essential for the achievement of sustainable development”.

“Including these two clauses will be fatal for the countryside, rural areas and our coast,” DLĦ president Simone Mizzi said yesterday.

“This wording introduces uncertainty, can be applied very broadly to many development schemes and thus creates loopholes that can be utilised to bring development into protected areas. They render null any improvements that have been incorporated into the final SPED draft.”

Din l-Art Ħelwa called on the Prime Minister to “instruct that these two ambiguous and ill-defined clauses are struck off the proposed final draft or that time be taken to define them properly before this draft is approved”.

The environmental NGO said this was the government’s last opportunity to give the country a Strategic Plan that clearly defined and gave direction to the use of space for the next decade.

Din l-Art Ħelwa maintained that this new legislation is not fit for the purpose for which it was created and it was still a very superficial document.

“However these two clauses render the plan vague and equivocal and therefore deny the SPED the essence of clarity it is required to have according to legislation.”

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