The Planning Authority has removed all objections filed by members of the public to any planning application from view on its public database.

This means that on the PA’s servers right now, neither the number nor nature of objections to any project – irrelevant of the scale – can be viewed by the public.

Contacted by The Malta Independent, a spokesperson for Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia said that the minister was not informed of such a move – implying that the decision had been taken exclusively by the Planning Authority – and had asked for an explanation.

“The Minister was not informed of this decision by the PA. He strongly believes that the PA should be transparent in its work and has asked the PA and IDPC [Information and Data Protection Commissioner] for an explanation,” Farrugia’s spokesperson said.

This was first revealed by NGO Moviment Graffitti, who said that a circular had been circulated within the PA advising of the change and saying that from now on only the applicant and his or her architect can see any objections which are filed.

The NGO called the decision “shameful” and a direct result of the “greed and filth” which has come to characterise the PA, which is now trying to hide even the most basic information from the public.

It said that hiding information is the only road for all those who want to do everything in an under-handed manner and is the only way that developers, ministers, and the PA itself can avoid looking bad in the face of record numbers of objections from the public.

The NGO noted that in this manner, it will not be possible to know how many objections had been filed to a project, and naturally there is nothing to guarantee that objections from the public will even be considered in the first place.

“The imbalance in favour of developers has become all the more obvious,” Moviment Graffitti said.

The NGO said that Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia and PA CEO Martin Saliba have to shoulder responsibility for this interference in public attempts to work in favour of the environment.

Moviment Graffitti promised that they will fight this measure in any way possible, and said that since Farrugia and Saliba had seemingly declared war – they would be ready to respond and fight back where and how needed.

Questions have been sent to the Planning Authority.