The Strategic Plan for Environment and Development (SPED) released for public consultation last week is “a scam”, according to marine biologist Alan Deidun, whose comments were echoed by several NGOs and experts.

The SPED, an EU legislative requirement, was for public consultation by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

The plan is meant to regulate the sustainable management of land and sea resources until 2020 and should replace existing policies for development, including the Structure Plan, adopted in 1992.

However, environmentalists who spoke to Times of Malta complained that the new document was nothing but a revamped version of another issued in 2012.

“It simply lists key principles and very broad objectives that contain very little specific detail or substance,” Dr Deidun said.

“The much-touted launch... is nothing less than a scam.”

The previous administration had already released the strategic objectives of the SPED for public consultation in 2012.

The EU laws governing the SPED stipulate that the plan must set out policies on use of land and sea together with a justification for each policy and proposal.

While falling short of this requirement, the report “seems to rubber stamp the development of an airstrip in Gozo as well as a yacht marina and cruise passenger terminal, without a single word on site identification which will lead to speculation,” Dr Deidun insisted.

“We need specific guidance from what should be the planning magna carta replacing the Structure Plan rather than vague statements that don’t wash.”

Cultural heritage organisation Din l-Art Ħelwa confirmed the government had reissued the 2012 document intended to guide the policy formulation stage: “It is slightly revised and updated but it has not moved on to the policy formulation stage.”

It said the report was not in line with legal requirements.

“In no way can it be considered as an adequate document to replace the Structure Plan.

“If this short document is intended to be the final SPED then it falls very far short of expectations. DLĦ expects the government to fulfil its responsibilities and to not attempt to bypass them for political expediency,” a spokesman said.

Water expert Marco Cremona described the report as a “wish list” that was not backed by the necessary economic, social and environmental analysis.

“One of the recommendations is ‘promoting rainwater harvesting’. Yet, for years, Mepa has failed to enforce the centuries-old regulation to build rainwater cisterns in new buildings.

“How do you encourage somebody to practise rainwater harvesting if he’s now living in a house that is without a rainwater cistern?”

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar spokesman Antonio Anastasi said it was positive that the Mepa report made the link between urban environment and health, which the Structure Plan did not.

“Whether any of the objectives in the document could be achieved would depend on political will.

“We have a number of policies to improve our quality of life but they’ve been lost in translation,” he said.

Confronted with these reactions, the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning, Michael Farrugia, replied that “the SPED has changed conceptually” and set the principles on which local plans would be based.

“The 2014 SPED gives specific direction on a number of issues which were either absent or not directly mentioned in the version prepared in 2012,” Dr Farrugia said.

Key differences in objectives in 2014*

• Minor adjustments of the development zone as set out in 2006.

• Lays the ground for Gozo projects including an airfield, a yacht marina, a cruise liner terminal and a reverse osmosis plant.

• Requires a spatial framework that supports land reclamation.

• Refers to the safeguarding of areas of containment (committed areas in ODZ) to accommodate incompatible urban development.

• Safeguards land around the airport and Freeport for future growth.

• Safeguards land around enterprise hubs and Ħal Far for future growth of hubs.

• Sets the context for the expansion of Ċirkewwa and Mġarr ports.

• Designates the Grand Harbour area for regeneration.

• Refers to regeneration of coastal resorts of Qawra, Buġibba and Marsascala.

* Source: Parliamentary Secretary for Planning