The key problem with the Planning Authority is that it repeatedly ignores its own planning rules, as confirmed by Court of Appeal decisions this past week, ADPD – The Green Party said Saturday.

The Authority applies its rules rigidly with the common citizen but is super flexible when it comes to the big and powerful developers. It is imperative that planning places people at the centre of decision making, placing people before profit and power, the party said.

ADPD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said that the key problem with the Planning Authority is that it repeatedly ignores its own planning rules. For this reason, just this week the Appeals Court nullified another two decisions of this same Planning Authority.

In the case of Mistra the renewed permit for a 12-storey development is not in line with the planning rules in force today, 10 years after the permit had been first issued. Although the Environment Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) had refused the residents’ appeal, the Court of Appeal has concluded that the residents’ claims were not examined adequately by the EPRT and sent the case back to the drawing board.

Another decision by the Court of Appeal this week has cancelled the permit for a hotel in Mellieha in an area where the local plan forbids it. The Mellieħa Local Council  appealed the PA’s decision. In this case the original recommendation to refuse this application had been ignored both by the Development Control Commission as well as by the EPRT.

In the meantime, construction work on this Mellieħa hotel proceeded so that by the time the appeal was decided the building was finished albeit without a permit. Moreover, since it is a hotel, it was granted a concession to build an additional two floors over and above the prevailing height. We now expect the building’s use to be changed from that of a hotel to one which is acceptable in a residential area and with the heights permissible in that area: the extra two floors need to be demolished expeditiously. Cacopardo said that only when this is done will the message be heard loud and clear: even omnipotent speculators are subject to the laws of the land!

Cacopardo said that these are only two cases that reveal how planning laws – albeit with their imperfections – may lead to sensible decisions, as long as those who take them are able to apply the rules correctly. This is the greatest reform needed at the Planning Authority: that within its structures the right persons are appointed who are willing to follow the rules. Unfortunately, such people are few and far between, concluded Cacopardo.