A planning authority proposal to sanction illegalities that took place over the past years is “defeatist”, according to Nature Trust, which yesterday appealed to the government not to accept the recommendation.

The environmental NGO was reacting to an article published by The Sunday Times of Malta saying that Mepa was in the final stages of proposing an amnesty to sanction long-standing illegal developments.

The scheme is meant to wipe out a substantial chunk of Mepa’s pending enforcement cases, which number about 10,000, and is expected to rake in more than €20 million.

Through an online portal, applicants would be expected to file documents, such as site plans, and pay a one-time fee that was heftier than the current charges to have a chance of getting the sanction.

It is admitting it is unable to enforce any planning regulations

“Nature Trust considers this move as a sort of defeatist approach by Mepa, which is ultimately admitting it is simply unable to enforce any planning regulations in Malta when it was set up to do just that, apart from making policies,” the NGO said.

Such proposals were an insult to all law-abiding citizens and imparted the message that one should break the law because a pardon or sanction would eventually be given.

“Government after government, Malta has been witnessing such pardons on a regular basis, be it for VAT and electricity abuse or illegal buildings and activities. These regular pardons are simply defeating the scope and only encouraging abuse,” it added.

The NGO called on the authorities to stand up for what they were set up to do and enforce.

If they were unable to do this then they should look into why they were failing and solve their problem rather than allow illegalities to become legal.

It appealed to the government not to accept the authority’s proposal but instead look into why Mepa was “failing the country”.

The scheme will apply to all infringements that took place before 2013 and those outside development zones that took place before the full establishment of the planning authority in 1994.