The draft Paceville master plan is another sham process fuelled by greed and should be withdrawn immediately, Din l-Art Ħelwa said.

A master plan should primarily address the needs of the entire community for the area, harmonising them into one vision and also providing a positive effect on the rest of the country, the NGO said in a statement.

While it favoured the development of master plans, the draft master plan for Paceville had failed this basic test.

“Din l-Art Ħelwa strongly objects to the process followed in the development of this draft master plan. Transparency was totally absent. What is supposed to be a ‘public interest’ process was apparently used to further direct financial interests.

“The submissions of nine developers were taken on board behind closed doors at the earliest stage of the drafting process while the interests of all the other stakeholders were ignored,” it said.

A process fuelled by greed and should be withdrawn immediately

The organisation said that not only were the needs of the community and the common good not taken into account but the property of others was used as a ‘free’ resource to facilitate the nine developments. The potential for regeneration of the streets and existing buildings of the area was hardly considered.  

Din l-Art Ħelwa also questioned how Paceville was prioritised for a master plan exercise, at a cost footed by the taxpayer, when more important sites in Malta were clearly in dire need of regeneration.

Good governance advocates that areas in need of regeneration were targeted for study before addressing commercial private interests as seemed to be the prime objective of this draft master plan.

Din l-Art Ħelwa also called on the Auditor General and the Ombudsman to look into the process followed by the government and the new Planning Authority and determine whether the public interest had been adequately served and safeguarded.

The proposal for land reclamation at the Portomaso site was entirely unjustified and should be eliminated altogether.  This would degrade the land and marine environment while increasing traffic and other infrastructural pressure to the area.

With the amount of development being proposed for the Paceville area through this draft master plan, the construction of further apartments or hotels through land reclamation could not be justified.