Associations and non-governmental organisations that form part of the lobby group Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (Together for a Better Environment), announced yesterday that they will be holding another protest march on Wednesday evening, when Parliament will be discussing the government’s proposals to extend development boundaries.

Ramblers Association president Lino Bugeja said the protest march is being organised in a last-ditch attempt to put pressure on the authorities not to give their go-ahead to something which, he said, will “open a can of stinking worms that will infest our doomed countryside for centuries.”

He urged everyone who cares about the environment in Malta to attend the protest march being held on Wednesday and starts at 5pm from City Gate. Protesters are expected to walk down Republic Street to Parliament where they will present a protest letter to each Member of Parliament who walks into the building.

Mr Bugeja said it was truly a coincidence how the government wants to discuss and vote on its proposed rationalisation process of the development boundaries two days before the European Union issues a new set of directives on the environment. He said the “unusual urgency” with which the government is trying to push forward its proposals is “manifestly meant to pre-empt the EU Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment which comes into force on 21 July”.

“It is very obvious that this is a ploy. Why is the government hurrying so much? Have they adopted a ‘you scratch my back and I scratch yours’ tactic? Malta is packed with building sites and future generations will not judge us by the number of concrete blocks we have built,” he said.

Mr Bugeja added he could not understand how in a matter of two months, the government completely reversed the Development Strategy Plan, which had promised so much on environmental issues.