Increasing the pace from that of the previous administration, the new government is driving the island towards another building bonanza with fast-fisted fury. If not managed properly and if all precautions are not taken to execute plans with the highest environmental regard possible, we will be reaching extinction point of all undisturbed cultural and natural heritage in Malta and Gozo. There is a saying in Italian: Quello che non fecero i barbari, hanno fatto i Barberini.  Well it applies here although only a few months have passed, not a thousand years between those in the driving seat changing into top gear.

Several proposals are set to impact piecemeal on all areas of Malta and Gozo and without an overall strategy in place. New policies to permit all sorts of building in the countryside have just been announced and the revision in local plans is imminent. An increase in heights for hotels is encouraged while regulations for tall buildings are being launched. Malta has not yet shaken off the turmoil brought about by the 2006 relaxation of heights and building boundaries yet new environmental upheaval is on its way.

In the countryside, that no-go area called ODZ, new policies are being introduced that will permit petrol stations, fireworks factories, stables, agricultural stores, farm shops, boutique wineries, slaughter houses, visitor accommodation and it has been said even a race track. While these may be worthy projects, there has been no analysis or inventory made to prove why they are necessary. There has been no study made on the impact of roads to all these activities, nor of the land that is going to be lost through access.  Perks have been conferred on those owning property in ODZ but not the responsibilities attached to them: maintenance and reinstatement of retaining rubble walls (not in franka please), protection of wells and old irrigation channels, the correct dispersal of soil of which we have so little. While the government has categorically reiterated it will not break the boundaries of out of development zones, it has announced just this week that all is set to build within them.  

Within development zones, the truth is out. Traditional town centres that enjoy some measure of protection under the much-abused definition of urban conservation areas (UCAs) have come under attack from speculators. Such areas are not fit for modern living standards, they say, as their bulldozers edge closer to penetrate those fine facades whose elegance no modern building has come close to emulating in the last 40 years. A Mepa spokesman is quoted to have said that buildings that cannot offer hygiene and safety standards justify demolition. If this were the case, places like Venice and Valletta would soon no longer exist. We are confident that the technical expertise of today’s engineers and architects can be called upon to give our traditional centres state-of-the-art conversions and bring about their regeneration without loss of character. Yet massive large-scale demolitions of old areas in towns like Naxxar, Mosta, Lija continue and beautiful gardens are lost forever.

On our coast, that magic line which gives our island identity, 23 land reclamation expressions of interest are being considered for a variety of uses including residences of which we have a glut. Although our foreshore is protected, several micro development proposals are set to finish off those small as yet natural stretches of rock as more cemented lidos are envisaged.

Although the impending high-rise policy dictates that no tall buildings are to be built on ridges, in Xemxija another 774 apartments requiring some 1200 car spaces on 12 floors are to ruin what is left of one of Malta’s most picturesque areas. Owners of the newly developed Mistra Village will enjoy privileged views that will be spoilt for everybody else as they blot the important stretch down from Mellieha to St Paul’s Bay. Sanity should prevail and correct procedures within the planning process followed so a major landscape such as this is not ruined. Set on the tourist route between Malta and Gozo, the road to Mellieha is still one of the few pleasing breathing spaces left. If we ruin these with the massive and monstrous building such as is envisaged on Mistra Ridge, what is left for us to enjoy? It is all too easy to turn money by selling off our beauty spots as one administration continues to conveniently perpetrate the mistakes of the other. On the other pole of the desecration trail, Marsaxlokk is up for grabs as a development plan for tourism purposes invites investment. If we wish to improve Marsaxlokk, still a pretty quaint fishing village that features on all foreign TV marketing programmes, I suggest that we leave it just as it is.

A new concept emerges. In the hotel industry, stakeholders become judge and jury as a ‘sky is the limit’ approach is to be permitted for increased building heights. Two floors are not enough and buildings can go higher providing the proposal is deemed of ‘interesting design’. This applies to Gozo too. We are happy to hear that there is a promise to reinstate that much missed institution, the Aesthetics Board.  However, submission of designs to this board, should it come about, will not be compulsory. So in the absence of this Style committee, who is going to decide which design is ‘interesting’ enough to permit height? Furthermore, have the hoteliers thought about the consequences to their own business when the sun no longer reaches swimming zones at 3pm? 

The energy to refresh the building industry is commendable but I am worried for Malta. I know I am not alone.  The result of Din l-Art Helwa’s public opinion poll conducted just before the elections was clear. STOP THE BUILDING topped the charts right through. Other surveys since then have shown that the majority do not want more building, so it is only a handful of speculators who are propagating construction. The tension between environmental protection and development inevitably imposes compromise and there needs to be a firm hand to manage the process. However, while the needs of human activity on our land are infinite, our environment is not. In the struggle for sustainability, it is always the environment that loses.

This government obtained a mandate that gives it the clout to do most things, provided it is for the common good and not for the few. It also must finalise a strategic plan which gives overall direction. It also has the serious responsibility conferred to it by Article 9 of Malta’s Constitution to care for the natural and cultural heritage of the Maltese Islands and their landscape. This is for the good of all. Passing piecemeal policies is for the good of the few and it must finalise a strategic plan that gives overall direction to sustainable planning.

Regulating the development of buildings in rural areas is admirable if we wish people to make appropriate use of the land. However, even if it is proved necessary, the process is open to great abuse and will result in villas, retail outlets and eventually little hamlets being built everywhere. Malta’s countryside is too small to permit such luxury.

We urge the public to study Mepa’s recently launched draft Outside Development Zone Policy and Design Guidelines and send in comments during the six-week period of consultation. Finally, we call on Mepa and its Board to use their grave responsibility wisely in the decisions that are to come. The buildings they are giving us are very ordinary, have no sense of place, and could be anywhere. We do not want to be anywhere. We want to remain Maltese and take pride in our 7000 years of history. We want to retain the traditional skills and good taste that have given us so many beautiful buildings. We want to protect the natural spaces upon which we have not yet left our distasteful mark. We appeal to the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Environment, and the officials at Mepa to have an overall strategy in place to stop ruining our islands and making them unpleasant, unliveable and just plain ugly.    

Ms Mizzi is the Executive President of Din l-Art Helwa