The secession of the planning component from environment at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority will be one of the priorities of Alternattiva Demokratika in a government coalition, said party chairperson Harry Vassallo yesterday.

Dr Vassallo held that the government’s decision of merging the planning and protection of the environment in a single authority in 1992 had had a disastrous outcome as the planning side overtook the environment one. That was the result of having the building industry as a focal point between politics and lobbies for decades, he stated.

In spite of development laws, Dr Vassallo said, the rule of law has not been upheld, as visitors can clearly see after a short stroll around the islands. So much so, he said, that a huge number of development applications should not have been filed in the first place. However, developers file their application and the ones who have friends succeed in having it approved while the others are left with nothing.

Having a firm hand on development legislation would ultimately help the construction industry, said Dr Vassallo, adding that in such a scenario, industry players would have clear boundaries within which to operate.

Asked by this newspaper whether the separate authorities would antagonise each other, AD Sustainable Development Spokesman Carmel Cacopardo said that his party proposed that such authorities’ board members ought to be appointed after a public hearing of a parliamentary committee assesses their competency in the field. “This would be more professional than having members whose sole competency is assessed according to their party membership,” he said.

Dr Vassallo said Architect Cacopardo had first-hand experience of dubious proceedings within Mepa after having documented them when he was an investigating officer in the authority’s audit office.

He heavily criticised the government for letting development reach bizarre levels as 28 per cent of housing units in Malta were vacant.

The AD proposed also to introduce local referenda for projects subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment. Had this been legislated, the Qala referendum regarding Hondoq ir-Rummien development would have been legally binding, said Architect Cacopardo.