Environmental NGO Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar said it has built a “young, dynamic and energised team” to forge a sustainable future for the NGO as its coordinator, Astrid Vella, will shortly be moving overseas.
“The new team benefits from Ms Vella’s experience, while also bringing a youthful and professional energy to FAA. The team is driven by the aims of the organisation to: "promote better management of, use of, and awareness of the environment and heritage of the Maltese Islands and their impact on the quality of life of all residents – individuals, households, businesses and communities,” the NGO said in a statement.
“As it enters its second decade, FAA announces major changes in response to the challenges that Malta is facing in the environmental and heritage scene, with so many new planning policies being conceived and systematically manipulated to favour development on a scale that threatens to rob us not only of our architectural heritage gems, but also of our health.
Over the past year FAA has seen the travesty of the Townsquare permit and the approval of the Mriehel high-rise project in spite of the fact that Mriehel was included in the FAR tall buildings zones after the policy consultation was concluded. FAA is appealing both permits at the Planning Tribunal but the onslaught on our urban conservation areas continues unabated, with a record number of applications granted in the so-called Out of Development Zone (countryside). “
FAA said it had witnessed public officials whose salaries are paid through public taxes, lie and dodge
responsibility in an obscene and blatant manner and a flood of applications that are often approved even though they contravene policy or law, even though they impinge on our right to a healthy environment. “Truly we have gone from the frying-pan into the volcano,” said FAA Coordinator Astrid Vella.
The NGO has also launched a revamped brand identity to represent a younger, fresher FAA.
In the words of FAA’s Perit Tara Cassar: “This new branding will appeal to professional and creative young people, students, business leaders and families, but does not shed the qualities and history
that led us here. The colours chosen reflect the natural and built environment of the Maltese islands with the outline of the Valletta skyline standing as an iconic standard-bearer for the beauty and heritage of our islands, and a pertinent reminder of precisely what is at risk in the coming years.”