Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening that the government would accept an Opposition proposal for any revisions to Outside Development Zones to be presented to parliament before they could come into force.

The request was made by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil yesterday when Parliament started debating the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED), a Bill which will replace the Structure Plan.

Dr Busuttil yesterday presented two motions. The first called on the government to withdraw and review the SPED in order to introduce greater safeguards for environmental protection and remove grey areas.

Failing that, he said in his second motion, the law should be amended so that any changes to Outside Development Zones (ODZs) could only be made after a motion was approved in Parliament.

Speaking in Parliament this evening, Dr Muscat said the government would take  the second proposal on board and the Bill would be amended accordingly. The government would therefore vote in favour of this motion by the Opposition. Indeed, SPED already said as much. The government, he said, had nothing to hide and by voting in favour it was reiterating this point. 

However, he said, the government MPs would vote against the first motion, calling for a review of SPED since it was urgently needed to replace the Structure Plan, which had existed for some 20 years.

When the voting took place, the Opposition's first motion was defeated, while the second, on ODZs, was unanimously approved.

MPs voting using the traditional method (where the names of MPs are called by the Clerk of the House) and a new electronic system.

The Speaker made it clear that it would be the traditional method which would count while the electronic system was tested. The result was 35 against and 28 in favour of the first motion. The result on the electronic version did not tally and was rejected.