Environmentalists have criticised the Prime Minister for going back on a pre-electoral commitment not to extend development boundaries.
During Times of Malta’s The Big Debate in February 2013, Joseph Muscat was asked whether he would commit to not extending the development boundaries. His reply was unequivocal: “Yes”.
It is a promise environmentalists have not forgotten. Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, Alternattiva Demokratika and Din l-Art Ħelwa have urged the government not to break its promise.
What is being included in development zones is based on whose land it is rather than where it is and what kind of land it is
Last month, Planning Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon revealed in an interview with Malta Today that the new local plans would “tweak” development boundaries again – going completely against the Prime Minister’s promise.
Dr Falzon justified adjusting the 2006 boundaries by accusing the former government of being “creative” in including certain areas of land and not others.
FAA pointed out it was the same pretext used in the 2006 rationalisation plans that extended earlier development boundaries.
Then, the organisation said, Dr Muscat had asked to speak at a rally against the extension of development boundaries.
“His abhorrence of environmental degradation seems to have evaporated once in office,” FAA’s Astrid Vella said.
FAA pointed out the Labour Party did not make impressive environmental promises before the general election but the commitment not to extend development boundaries was clear.
“Besides the electoral manifesto spin, the only promise consistently made was that there would be no re-drawing of the boundaries,” Ms Vella said.
Alternattiva’s deputy chairman, Carmel Cacopardo echoed similar concerns saying that whatever Labour had said before the elections now has the opposite meaning.
He said the government is using the same reason used by the previous government during the controversial rationalisation scheme that allowed more development in areas where it was previously not possible to build. Injustices had been committed when lines were drawn.
“What that really means is that someone’s land was included and someone else’s wasn’t. So what is being included in development zones is based on whose land it is rather than where it is and what kind of land it is. That is the real issue,” he said.
“It is time to reduce not extend areas that can be built.”
Petra Bianchi from Din l-Art Ħelwa said the public was expecting Dr Muscat to stick to the pledge he had made during The Big Debate not to extend the development boundaries.
“Yet now the boundaries are going to be ‘tweaked’, which in doublespeak means they will be changed.
“Actions speak louder than words, especially if words are given so little value. It is simply not credible for the Prime Minister’s New Year’s Day message to look forward to more dialogue on the environment in 2015, while at the same time riding roughshod over major environmental concerns in practice,” Ms Bianchi said.
Even if the boundaries remain unchanged, more countryside will be lost as one of the government’s top priorities for the planning sector has been to draft policies enabling construction outside the development zones, she added.
The growing support for Din l-Art Ħelwa’s ‘Save the Countryside’ campaign on Facebook shows that many people are strongly against more construction in rural areas.