Malta has entered a new legislature. The government has pledged a strong environmental focus, a pledge one will keep the Labour Party to.

Malta has, for many years, placed priority on building with the environment we live in being a mere afterthought, if that.

Lack of green areas, lack of aesthetically pleasing building designs, the hotchpotch construction regime… all leading to the uglification of our island nation.

The government has pledged to create many new urban green areas. If done right, this will boost the quality of life for many residents in those areas and could also serve as attractions for tourists. People need spaces close by to where they live where they can spend quality time with their families or just go for a walk among trees and greenery to de-stress.

Having to travel by car to reach such areas is not acceptable.

The creation of these urban green areas needs to be done hand-in-hand with a change in building policy. We need a serious Planning Authority, not one that panders to developers and just looks at a single development without glancing at the area as a whole. If a building is ugly, then refuse it. We need a serious aesthetics and skyline policy. We also need a crackdown on developers who try and circumvent the system, by filing multiple applications for a development pretending that they are separate. There must be consequences for such actions.

The Environment and Resources Authority as well as the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage need to be given more power and say in applications.

The government tried to paint itself as environmentally friendly and conscious during the election campaign. Well, its time to put its money where its mouth is.

If we continue building like we have over the past few years, the Malta we know will be unrecognisable. The uglification of Gozo has already started, just look at Xlendi.

The PA also needs to take swift action against those breaking the law.

The Planning Authority last week refused an application to sanction an illegal gate which was blocking access to the Blata tal-Melh coastline in Bahrija. The case officer had recommended that the application for the gate – which was put up without any permits – be refused as it is in breach of the country’s rural policy, which bans gates blocking pre-1967 footpaths and because it was in breach of SPED policies which regulate public access to the coastline. This was a good decision by the PA. Now one hopes that action will be taken to quickly remove the gate altogether.

Placing the environment as a main priority is not an easy task. Planting a few trees on the side of roads is not enough. We need to tackle the urban environment, the design of our built up areas. We need to save the open space we have left. The government will not have an easy task to do this, but we hope that their focus on the environment will be more than just words.