The Malta Labour Party yesterday criticised the government’s proposal to change the development boundaries and it questioned whether the government had ulterior motives.

Labour MPs Joe Brincat and Roderick Galdes said the government should have allowed the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to draw up a set of criteria on which the boundaries will be changed.

They said that the government should be careful how it changes the country’s development boundaries because of the effect this could have on the environment.

They said Cabinet should not have got involved in the matter.

Dr Brincat and Mr Galdes said that according to the State of the Environment Report 2005, 23 per cent of land in Malta was already developed. They said the report considered this figure to be alarming because there was a lack of space in Malta.

They said that since 1988, the government’s policy had always been against any extension of the development boundaries. Dr Brincat and Mr Galdes asked why the government going against its own policies.

“It is very difficult not to believe that there are no ulterior motives with regard to the Nationalist government’s policy on building and planning,” they said.