From Mr S. Sammut

It is indeed saddening not to hear the Labour Party expressing any concern about the over development that has marred the quality of life of many Maltese families. Throughout the last four decades, our country has witnessed an interminable progression of the systematic slow destruction of arable land and the countryside. It started off with the property boom of the 1960s, followed by the infamous PAPB when Labour showed no sense in environmental planning. It was more concerned with dishing out plots of land at very cheap prices while you and I had to work hard for the money to buy our own home at the current property price.

Those were the days when land speculation was the order of the day. Today’s Labour, the new Labour seems fixated with the idea that development means marinas and golf courses. I wonder how many of us commoners will benefit from all of this if not having more polluted waters, more pesticide soaked stretches of land for the elite to chuck the balls nearer to the hole. The Nationalist Party’s track record on sustainable environment is abysmal. Mind you, they did wonderful things, the Xummiemu, EkoSkola, bring-in sites, WasteServe, waste separation, rehabilitating Maghtab and others. But the bad things outweigh the goodies. We have witnessed particular construction magnates encroaching on public land, the last remaining unspoilt Wied (valley) in Kalkara being turned into another development zone, no consideration for village cores, urban sprawls which have disregarded any provisions by local plans, the threats to Xaghra l-Hamra, Ramla l-Hamra, Ta’ Cenc, Hondoq ir-Rummien and so on. Rent reform has been promised but shelved. Now we have it from the horse’s mouth that Labour would not retract from the recent revisions of development zones that had brought out civil society protesting against them.

This property boom that started in the 1960s and which escalated in the following decades has resulted in a surplus of 53,000 vacant dwellings lying idle. It has burdened our infrastructure, which has been compelled to further expenditures forked out through your and my taxes.

How can one trust these people anymore? With our vote we can initiate real change in this country by voting into Parliament a much-warranted AD (the Green Party) representative/s with true environmental credentials.

Saviour Sammut

SAFI