Approvals of applications for construction on public land goes against the recently approved law on the Public Domain, according to environmental NGOs who are calling for decisions to reflect this new legislation.
Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar and Friends of the Earth Malta said they have welcomed the Act and the power it gives government to increase safeguards for the protection of the environment, yet they have lambasted recent decisions to give developers large tracts of prime coastal sites.
In a statement, Din l-Art Ħelwa said that recent reports that a stretch of the foreshore at St George’s Bay in St Julian’s could soon be given to a private developer seeking to redevelop the former ITS site was very disappointing. The foreshore was never part of the ITS site.
The Sunday Times of Malta revealed recently that a private investor was selling residences as part of the project that will replace the ITS, despite having no title over the land yet.
The government has since given reassurances that the coastal land that would form part of the project to turn the ITS site into a private development would remain public and accessible, in line with the new law. This came after the Nationalist Party sought assurances that the project would not include the nearby coast.
However, DLĦ still called on the government to clarify whether the 15 metres of foreshore would be safeguarded as part of the public domain and whether it included St George’s Bay. “The public is dismayed with the amount of approved applications for construction everywhere, rendering Malta one entire building site. The public domain law presents an opportunity to the government to protect the environment. DLĦ hopes that this is acted upon by new Environment Minister Jose Herrera.”
Meanwhile, FAA said that while the NGO welcomed the ratification of the Act, it immediately put it to the test in the case of the sanctioning of illegal structures and extensive encroachment on the public coastline by the Hilton Hotel.
A spokeswoman for the NGO said that the hearing had been delayed until after the Act came into force and the organisation even filed a judicial protest, holding the Authority and its individual Board members responsible for ensuring that the law regarding the public domain and access to the foreshore was respected.
“In spite of this, most of the members of the Planning Authority Board, including the chairman, chose to ignore the Act, although the coastline was by then classified as an area of public domain,” FAA spokeswoman Astrid Vella said.
The illegal development violated permit conditions protecting a wartime pillbox and has taken place on an area marked in the outline permit plans as an ecological area, she added.
“The fact that the Planning Authority gave the go-ahead for the private colonisation not just of a coastline but of a public area of ecological value effectively nullifies the law regarding the public domain, showing that the PA, a government authority responsible for the Public Domain Act, is reluctant to implement it and puts private gain before public interest,” Ms Vella said.
Friends of the Earth echoed this, saying it would be looking forward “to an inclusive and transparent exercise whereby important sites are delineated, hoping that eventually these sites will be managed in a professional manner.”