Planning authority CEO Johann Buttigieg must resign over his handling of the proposed development of a university at Żonqor, green groups charged.

Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth, Ramblers and Youth for Environment yesterday said Mr Buttigieg had acted like a government consultant rather than a regulator.

They insisted Mr Buttigieg’s position had become untenable and called for his resignation during a news conference outside the Prime Minister’s office in Valletta.

FAA coordinator Astrid Vella said Mr Buttigieg had undermined Mepa’s already-poor integrity as a regulator when he accepted the government’s request to identify the best site for a university campus in the south of the island. In doing so, he had acted like a government consultant rather than the ultimate arbiter, she said.

“Should he refuse to resign, the onus of his unethical handling of the Żonqor case falls directly on the Prime Minister,” she added.

Nevertheless, she argued that Mr Buttigieg should not have been appointed in the first place. She noted that in 2012 the Mepa auditor had censured Mr Buttigieg, then a case officer, for misleading the authority on an application for a wedding hall below Rabat.

The NGOs also expressed their concern that long-term policies rolled out by the Labour government were eroding environmental safeguards.

The planning watchdog had been reduced to a screen to mark politicians’ efforts to promote the interests of developers backing them, the NGOs said.