Six environmental organisations and experts today lambasted government’s planning policies, saying the Mepa reform was “an exercise in dishonesty”.
The protective environmental regulations introduced over time to address Mepa’s inadequacy in dealing with development abuse were now being treated by government as “bureaucracy” and being dismantled, said Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar.
Enforcement under Mepa never worked, the organisation said, let alone when its duties were trebled under the proposed policies that were extremely lenient towards developers.
“There is a strong reliance on self-regulation by developers,” FAA said. “We know where this got us in the past.”
Friends of the Earth spokesman Edward Mallia reinforced this point, saying: “Development and planning have always had the upper hand at Mepa. Now we have a great deal of rhetoric on environmental protection, but there’s a hyperactive planning division operating while the environment minister is still bereft of an as yet undivided Mepa.”
The Noise Abatement Society made similar criticism of the planning authority saying it never enforced noise pollution regulations.
All environmental organisations were extremely critical of the fact that the environment minister had not been consulted on the new ODZ policy, as revealed in an interview with Minister Leo Brincat in The Sunday Times of Malta.
They questioned what tools the environment ministry would have to back up his pledge to protect the environment, saying the Mepa reform was skewed in favour of a handful of developers.
They pointed to "abusive" planning applications filed since 2001 by the architect of the Mepa reform, consultant Robert Musumeci, saying the priorities at the new planning authority were evident.
Times of Malta contacted Mr Musumeci for explanations on his recommendations on the Mepa reform, but he did not reply to questions.
Alfred Baldacchino who has a long career in the Environment Directorate, spoke of Mepa’s complete failure to protect the environment. “The environment, under Mepa, went from being a Cinderella to an orphan."
While Mepa was rushing through planning policy reforms, there was no environment director within the authority to counter proposals that were harmful to the environment, he said.
The Mepa reform proposal is strongly focused on “simplifying procedures”, said John Portelli of the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement. “But eliminating structures will not necessarily result in simplification, unless there is a strong foundation on which policies are based.”
Mr Portelli referred to the 8,000 pending enforcement notices dating back to the early 1990s, as revealed by Times of Malta. “The fact that Mepa is weak in environmental protection has to be solved by proper regulations and structures. The point is not whether Mepa will be split, but how strong the environmental protection function will be.”
Environmental NGOs agreed that allocating one vote to the Environment and Resources Authority on the Mepa planning board was “a joke”.
“The new ERA needs to be given sufficient power rather than be relegated to an external consultant. As it is, it will only remain an afterthought in planning processes,” Mr Portelli said.