I would like to kindly refer to Anne Zammit's interesting article (July 4) on the environment, entitled 'From structural to spatial planning'.

While agreeing with her conclusions and observations, I would like to set the record straight that it was primarily thanks to the public stand that the Labour Party parliamentary group took before the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) Bill even started being discussed in Parliament, as well as during its initial remarks in the second reading of the draft bill, that the concept of spatial planning was given centre stage on the national agenda.

Until then, the government was at best indifferent and at worst quizzical and sceptical about such a concrete and specific proposal.

Time is of the essence and the effective implementation process of the transition from structural to spatial planning will have a pivotal role to play.

A number of concrete proposals by the PL on the separation of entities - an environmental agency distinct from the planning arm, as well as the proposed establishment of a Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee modelled on the Public Accounts Committee and chaired by the Opposition - were flatly rejected by the government.

Still, we remain somewhat comforted by the fact that we have been at the forefront in winning bi-partisan support for such an innovative and creative planning concept and approach that has been in place in other EU countries for years.

Had we taken a passive and merely reactive approach, I am sure Malta would still be lumped and burdened with what would be an archaic structure plan.

We are equally comforted by the fact that two other specific proposals of ours were finally accepted in the final version of the Mepa Bill. The first was that Mepa itself should be guided by best EU practice.

The second was that an effective file audit trail should immediately be introduced within Mepa structures to eliminate all possibility of abuse regarding conveniently 'lost' files - a problem that often prevailed in the past - even where certain mega projects and dubious permitting applications were involved.