Din l-Art Helwa has objected to the government's ongoing initiative to revise and introduce a series of plans and policies before the new Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) is concluded and without having carried out the necessary studies.

In a letter to the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Development Planning it requested that that the committee reviewed the procedure that was currently being followed by the government in the preparation of the SPED and the revision and formulation of these plans and policies.

The government has launched a process to revise and introduce several major plans and policies, including the revision of Local Plans, for construction outside development zone, tall buildings, hotel heights adjustment policy, fireworks factories, solar farms, fuel stations, cemeteries and the development of Marsaxlokk.

These plans and policies, Din l-Art Helwa said, had major and long-term environmental, social and economic implications, and they should be put on hold until the SPED was concluded.

The SPED is intended to replace the Structure Plan and should be finalised and open for public consultation before major revisions to subsidiary plans and policies were embarked upon.

In December a public rally was organised by environmental groups which called on the government to refrain from revising these plans and policies before adequate studies are carried out and earlier, the Commissioner for the Environment and Development called for a Marine Subject Plan.

The letter to the Standing Committee can be viewed on www.dinlarthelwa.org .