In a press conference held with residents in Attard and in Mellieha, Dr Harry Vassallo, chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party (AD), said that the proposed extensions to planning boundaries is in violation of Maltese and EU law.
“In terms of Maltese law any such extensions to planning boundaries should take place within the framework of the ongoing Structure Plan review in order to take account of the effects of any such extensions on other planning sectors. The Structure Plan review is itself subject to a Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) in terms of the EU’s SEA Directive.
“It is absurd that the Government proposes to break the law in this way, especially since documents published by MEPA state clearly that a conservative estimate of the potential that exists for housing development stands at 98,300 residential units. This estimate does not take into account the 23,000 permanently vacant dwellings, nor the revisions in building height limitations currently proposed in the local plans. The estimate of the demand for additional housing units according to the same MEPA documents stands at 43,400 until 2020. It is absurd that the government exposes a vast expanse of the surviving countryside to development when we clearly have already more than double the amount of space required until 2020 within the present planning boundaries,” Dr Vassallo said.
Dr Vassallo expressed the solidarity of Alternattiva Demokratika with Attard residents objecting to the extension of planning boundaries, which will see Attard extend to the periphery of Ta’ Qali National Park. “The extension violates the criteria the government has set itself by including a valley area subject to frequent flooding,” Dr Vassallo said.
“This needless commitment of fertile arable land to development is yet another slap in the face to residents who invested their savings or remain bound for many years to pay their mortgages, having paid a premium for their homes at the edge of development in their village,” he added.
By favouring major developers with these extensions, the government has destroyed the certainties or the acclimatization to planning boundaries unchanged since 1988. This change threatens not only the sites included in the present extension but also very many others owned by developers, who can now be expected to renew their efforts to have them included in this or in yet another boundary extension process in future. The government is invited to withdraw its proposals and to make a commitment together with all other political parties not to extend development boundaries any further.
Ralph Cassar, AD spokesperson and himself an Attard resident, said that on behalf of AD and Dr Vassallo, he shares the concerns of Attard residents denied sufficient and timely access to information with regard to their objection to the construction of a petrol station outside the development zone and adjacent to Mount Carmel Hospital. Such unnecessary commitment of green area adds to the widespread sense of urgency to prevent the destruction experienced by a large sector of the population.
Speaking in Mellieha, Dr Vassallo said that his meeting with residents had allowed him to acknowledge the amazement and the shock they have experienced in learning of the proposed extension at Tal Bragg. Apart from affecting residents whose homes will be significantly devalued when they no longer lie at the boundary of development, the proposal would destroy mature carob trees and a huge untouched area including the side of a valley. In this case, the extension is being justified by the government since it is being substituted for another area in Mellieha at Tas-Sellum, which is being excluded from the planning areas. This exceptional compensation is particularly suspect since it would expose the government to an obligation to compensate all owners of all lands lying outside development zones. The government either has the power to exclude any area or it does not. If the government feels obliged to compensate for any changes it makes, it should also take into account compensation that may be due to owners of properties who will be negatively affected by the proposed changes. Such compensation would amount to many millions of liri and be a further absurd extravagance above and beyond that of destroying a significant part of the remaining countryside when there is clearly no need to do so.