There was an interesting and surprising comment at the recently held seminar on urbanisation organised by the Guardian of Future Generations. Frank Salt, who has made his fortune over the last 50 years from successive property booms in Malta, gave as his view that areas such as Buġibba and Qawra had been built with no planning, leaving them to become “slums”. “A modern-day slum has arisen that we have the nerve to call a holiday resort,” he said.
Mr Salt evidently meant well. He is one who cares about Malta. But there is also little doubt that real estate agents, powerful businessmen, contractors and property developers must also bear full responsibility – alongside successive governments of all political colours – for the appalling state of urban sprawl and lack of proper planning.
They did not attempt to stop it and, instead, benefited financially from it. It was the outnumbered and outgunned cultural heritage and environmental NGOs that fought – mostly unsuccessfully – for, in Mr Salt’s words, “proper planning rigidly controlled”.
Over the last 50 or 60 years, building planning development was akin to the Wild West. It started with the taking of several large tracts of open countryside for development and was followed by an onslaught on some of the country’s most attractive towns and villages, the valleys and the coast-line. Distinct and once integral villages have spread outwards into a virtually amorphous mass.
Despite the welcome and overdue creation of the Planning Authority in 1992 – 28 years after Independence – the tide of uglification, personified by overdevelopment, combined, in many cases, with poor architecture persisted. In reality, Malta had no proper planning authority or structure plan for more than 30 years after the first of a series of building booms that began the transformation of the island into a sprawling building site. The impact of excessive and inefficient land use has created collateral damage in various related areas, from the coastal environment to cultural heritage sites and the natural habitats of the Maltese islands.
What lessons should Malta draw from the mistakes of the last half century, which persist with a vengeance to this day?
The first lesson is the paramount need for a firm and comprehensive legislative framework to safeguard the built environment and to adhere to a master plan for both Malta and Gozo.
Secondly, there must be the political will to enforce the law on urban planning, the environment and the protection of heritage buildings. The construction boom of the last few years is uncontrolled. It is leaving future generations with an appalling legacy. It has been characterised by too great a willingness to turn a blind eye to powerful lobby groups, such as big business and the construction industry, for fear of losing their votes (and, of course, their financial support). The application of political backbone on enforcement has been sadly lacking.
The Planning Authority must develop a greater regard for assessing the intended and unintended impacts on society of major projects before they are given the go ahead.
Poor governance, poor organisation and a lack of an agreed master plan have all taken their toll. The centrepiece of any sustainable plan for the built environment must be to tackle the aesthetics and social impact of how we use and share our tiny land.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial