While the whole country is focused on the financial scandals front, waiting for the last electoral bomb to go off, it is business as usual at that credibility-deficient institution that is the Planning Authority. The permit-churning continues apace, with the latest blow being the approval of a development, covering an area of 1,400 squares of pristine agricultural land in an ODZ area in Kalkara. It will include the construction of four basement garages having a footprint of about 735 square metres, four underlying reservoirs, an access ramp, three swimming pools and adjoining deck areas.
Residents had objected, the Environment Resources Authority had objected, the case officer’s report recommended a refusal, and still the application went through.
This is just another blow in the death by a thousand cuts to our ODZ areas. It is due to the disastrous combination of the 2014 ODZ policies (Rural Policy and Design policies), a three-person rubber-stamping Planning Commission and the seemingly charmed touch of consultants-cum-architects.
This may look like small potatoes in the general scheme of things, but it is symptomatic of the absolute and utter collapse of our whole planning system. Although ostensibly allowing for public consultation and objections, these are merely allowed but not taken into consideration.
At times, the consultation phases about hugely controversial applications such as that proposed on the former ITS site is deliberately started at a time when the nation is distracted. (In fact, that will be wrapped up on Tuesday). It’s all part of a system expressly conceived to allow all sorts of development to go through.
We have invited the leaders of all the political parties to a short presentation tomorrow. We want them to take an environmental credibility pledge
There is no enforcement except for the supremely unlucky few who have no connections and no patronage system in place. Both the Labour Party and the PN continue introducing planning amnesties which effectively mean that the law-abiding are penalised, and there can never be any holistic, integrated system. Controversy is (rightly) fuelled by mega projects such as Żonqor, but the insidious and detrimental effects of the Nationalist 2006 rationalisation scheme is still being felt. It is evident that a similar readjustment of development boundaries by Labour is in the pipeline.
At this point in time some people may be wondering why we should even bother about the environment this time around, when it is the allegations of money-laundering and illicit payments which should concern us exclusively. Isn’t making a big deal about birds and bees a bit out of context in the current electoral climate?
I would say that safeguarding the environment of our country – our common home – is more vital than ever.
Investigate, prosecute and punish financial crime and corruption at all stages and in all instances, and most definitely if it is rooted in the upper echelons of government. But we cannot let this be a single-issue election. Because single-issue elections result in incredible compromises, and neglecting the very areas we can no longer afford to ignore.
It has been the case for many past elections. We have insisted on boiling down whole campaigns to singular issues, with the result that all other aspects are ignored. Before there was financial rot there was planning rot with an analogous institutional collapse.
Now, recognising the dire situation in which we find ourselves in, practically all the environmental NGOs in Malta have teamed up and come up with a set of common environmental proposals.
We have invited the leaders of all the political parties to a short presentation of these proposals tomorrow. We want them to take an environmental credibility pledge. We specifically invited the leaders because they are the ones who make the decisions. We would find it disappointing to be fobbed off to a spokesperson, especially in view of the fact that, for example, it was reported that the hunters have had meetings with the PN last week, and are seeking one with Labour.
If the PN and Labour leaders can find time from their busy schedule to meet hunters, why not 30 minutes for 30 eNGOs?
Their response – or lack of it – will be a significant indicator of their true intentions away from the stage-managed partisan events and cultish mass meetings. It remains to be seen whether they will rise to the occasion or fall short again.
drcbonello@gmail.com