Properties in Wied Għomor and Villa Frere should be expropriated and kept for public use, the shadow minister for the environment, Jason Azzopardi said on Wednesday.

Speaking in Parliament during a debate on the estimates of the Environmental Resources Authority, Dr Azzopardi said the government should use its surplus "for the common good".

Wied Għomor, a scheduled site of ecological and scientific importance between Swieqi and San Ġwann, has been threatened by a number of development applications in recent years.

Giardino Zamitello, adjacent to Villa Frere, was also threatened by a planning application to transform the area into a giant hotel earlier this year.

Dr Azzopardi also referred to an article in The Shift News that reported a developer had written to the Lands Authority to inform it that it was delaying plans to develop Villa Frere gardens.

The Prime Minister had "promised his full cooperation" to the developer, according to the leaked documents, the report said. The developer went on to deny any untoward cooperation.

Dr Azzopardi said "heads should have rolled" over the revelation, however, the country had become numb and deaf to allegations of wrongdoing.

The government should have used its surplus to expropriate the land for the common good, he said.

Is the government brave enough to do this and was there political will to do this, he asked.

The PN MP also proposed a public fund to help civil society and local councils appeal development permits.

Responding to the criticism during a later intervention, Environment Minister Jose Herrera said the idea to expropriate further land was not bad and was something the government should look into bringing forward.

The government had to take the properties' owners, squatters in the areas and those who "believed to have ownership over the land" into consideration, he said.

However, he added, the government was taking areas previously earmarked for development and using them for afforestation projects. A site in Bengħajsa will see 8,000 trees planted in an area that will be the country’s biggest afforestation project to date, he added.

Dr Herrera also refuted criticism that the Environment and Resources Authority was toothless, saying that where it was possible, the ERA did criticise decisions.

The ERA was also working on increasing monitoring of emissions and would be given support to increase enforcement, he said.

The country had seen the largest environmental reform in recent years, he said, adding that it was critical that a small country had an environmental strategy.

He also encouraged the Nationalist party to provide proposals, rather than criticise.