For most people living in Malta, public open space which is closeby, easily accessible and provides respite from the fumes and overcrowded streets is just not available.
The only option is to travel outside of the urban centre, with most choosing the coast where the openness of the sea is the best remedy available to help one forget (at least temporarily) about the chaos and congestion around them.
In an attempt to address the public’s growing concerns, the government had announced a number of projects, amongst them a park in Bengħajsa, Birżebbuġa, an extension to the National Park in Ta’ Qali, the regeneration of a landfill in Wied Fulija, Żurrieq, and the covering of Regional Road in Sta Venera.
Aside from the proposal over Regional Road, all projects fail to address the issue at hand, which is that public open space is needed within urban centres and not in detached rural areas that are only accessible by car. The projects, whilst welcome, will not result in an overall increased feeling of openness since the sites (although partly disturbed) are not built over to begin with and should never be since they fall outside of the development zone. These proposals will not contribute to an improved urban environment within town centres where the need for open space is most felt. In fact, it is likely that by the time these projects would have materialized, the dire situation within our towns would have worsened as the few remaining open spots that we see around us today would have also been lost to more development.
The need for more public open space within urban areas has been recognized in policies governing land-use in Malta since 1992, and was reiterated in the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development [SPED] issued in 2015. Of course, saying something is needed and actually providing it are two very different things. As building zones increased and the permissible number of floors grew incrementally, the PA reduced requirements for having to provide public open space when developing multi-unit residential complexes. In some cases the Planning Authority even gave the go-ahead for the construction of residential developments over land which was specifically designated as public open space and reserved for recreational purposes or zoned as a tree protection area.
A recent example of this was the Planning Board’s decision to approve a new by-pass on agricultural land in Attard and the widening of the full length of the road along the town’s Southern boundary through the Central Link project as put forward by Infrastructure Malta. In addition to the loss of hundreds of trees and thousands of square meters of agricultural land, the project would also lead to the loss of over 800sqm of land that was, and still is, designated in the Local Plans as public open space for recreational use.
That sum sadly pales in comparison to the amount of public open space that would be lost if the major road works proposed for Pembroke and St Julian’s (again by Infrastructure Malta) get approved. The application would result in a new road built over untouched land within the confines of Pembroke in order to provide access to a new tunnel (also forming part of the same application) that is itself intended to provide access to the db Group development on the ex-ITS site (the application for which is being reprocessed by the Planning Authority following NGOs’ court appeal victory). If approved this new road would lead to the loss of over 12,000sqm of pristine natural land over a site designated under the Local Plans for public open space as St Patrick’s Park.
At a recent press conference in Siġġiewi, when speaking about the embellishment works in Għar Lapsi, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, Dr Ian Borg, under whose responsibility Infrastructure Malta falls, was reported to have said that the embellishment project (again in a remote location) was part of his vision which includes more and more open spaces for our communities, “a vision that looks at the continuous improvement of quality of life”.
Should the Minister be serious about his “vision”, his priority should be to address the unnecessary loss of land reserved for public open space such as that occurring through road-widening projects.
Once the loss of existing public open spaces has been prevented, the focus can shift to projects providing new public open spaces within urban centres in addition to the regeneration of sites in more remote rural areas. Perhaps then communities might begin to experience some beneficial change in their surroundings that could lead to an improved quality of life.
Tara Cassar is an architect focusing on planning policies and environmental issues related to land-use, active with a number of local eNGOs.
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