Alternattiva Demokratika – the Green Party – has presented an official letter in court against the government on the development zones issue and is prepared to continue with court cases even at a European level, AD chairman Harry Vassallo said yesterday.
Speaking at a press conference in Attard yesterday morning, Dr Vassallo said AD has managed to gather the support of various residents in a number of localities around Malta who will be adversely affected by the rationalisation process of the development zones.
He said these people approached Alternattiva Demokratika because they believe the party can help them to fight this “unjust and illegal” decision to widen the development zones. Residents from various villages, including Swieqi, Lija, Iklin, Siggiewi, Attard, Birzebbuga and Naxxar, among others, gathered in Attard yesterday.
Dr Vassallo said Malta was not governed by the present government but by land speculators and developers who are holding the Nationalist Party in government at ransom. The AD chairman said the extension of the development zones is illegal because it breaches European Union legislation. He said this was why these residents contributed, even financially, to initiate court proceedings on this breach of EU laws.
Dr Vassallo said the government would have been better off worrying that one of every four houses in Malta is vacant, that one of every three houses in Gozo is vacant too and about the rocketing price of property in Malta. He said it was not true that Malta needed more space for more development, as much as it was not true that more apartments needed to be built. He said there are already too many of these on the market and since the prices are sky high, they remain vacant and cannot be sold.
The AD chairman said that with the rationalisation process, the government also breached several policies of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, especially in terms of the height of buildings.
He said that as a result of this process and changes to the development zones, residents feel that their quality of life is going to deteriorate and that the price of their property will depreciate.
On his part, AD candidate Ralph Cassar said that there are too many apartments on the market and that the fact that more apartments are needed, even for social reasons, was just an excuse to please contractors, developers and land speculators.
Mr Cassar said that the real need – also a social need – was to control the price of property which is on the increase and which many people cannot afford. Moreover, he said, the sewage system is already overloaded as it is and if more residences are connected to the sewage system, this would add more problems to those which already exist.
In addition to this, more residences would result in more roads and pavements and extra expenses for local councils which already have a budget which is too tight. He said it was evident that for the PN government, the interests of developers and land speculators come before the interests of residents.