Over the years, the Church’s Commission on the Environment has produced some extremely perceptive and hard-hitting reports about the state of Malta’s built and natural environment. It has been even-handedly critical both of the last Nationalist administration and this government.

Its latest report expressed deep concern about land-use planning, highlighting the way in which decisions appeared to be skewed to favour developers to the detriment of the quality of life of citizens and entire communities. It backed these claims by citing the controversial and badly-conceived so-called “Paceville master-plan” and the ugly, intrusive construction of tall buildings in the heart of Sliema and Gżira, the result of haphazard and thoughtless planning.

The commission puts the matter bluntly. Political patronage is destroying Malta’s urban and natural fabric. The country’s heritage landscape is being destroyed. “Promising the earth to various individuals” – it might have added, less tactfully, such as the powerful business groups behind the high-rise developments – “risks imploding the whole planning governance system”, it said.

Unrealistic pre-electoral promises are destroying the country’s heritage to the detriment of future generations. The commission rightly raised concerns about the government’s unconscionable delay in the publication of local plans, which have exceeded the time frames promised. It speculated that, perhaps, this was because the government was “being held hostage” by commitments given to certain individuals that would be impossible to honour without compromising large tracts of open space.

Against this background – and not content simply to complain about the unsightly and depressing state of the urban environment – the Church commission also made sensible proposals to ensure there was some control over the rampant construction development.

It recommended that the Environment and Resources Authority and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage should be granted a veto in cases of development applications relating to areas within their competence and remit, such as development of ODZ nature sites or areas of historic and architectural heritage value. This would ensure a proper safeguard against the permissive regime that finds ways of overruling these two supposed guardians of our natural and cultural heritage.

It also recommended that the government should commission a study into the reasons for the concerns about a precarious “property bubble”. The need to know what drives the bubble – whether sale of passports or possible money laundering – is essential if it is to be prevented from exploding with catastrophic economic consequences.

As to the unseen and unheard Office of the Guardian of Future Generations, it is about time this body stopped being so conspicuously reticent about safeguarding the environment for future generations. If it is being hindered by the government from doing its job, it should stand down – as its predecessor did. That would convey a clear message about the state of our institutions in this field and their inability to influence a government hell-bent on destroying Malta’s urban and natural heritage.

Failure by national institutions to rein in the “powerful few” from trampling the rights of everybody else has meant failure to safeguard both present and future generations.

This is a Times of Malta print editorial

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