The time has come that development projects that will leave a disproportionate impact on the surrounding residents should require the approval of the same residents, since we cannot rely on the authorities to protect our rights as citizens who have the right to live in peace in our homes, ADPD-The Green Party Chairperson, Sandra Gauci said Saturday.

Speaking on the site of the former Mistra Village in Xemxija, where development is taking place, ADPD Deputy Chairperson, Carmel Cacopardo said that what we are seeing here is a typical example of how the authorities many a time, instead of protecting the interests of society and the common citizen favours those with power and money.

The residents of this area have been suffering for months now from noise and dust plumes at all times of the day, thanks to a so-called planning system which favours the developer to the detriment of the common citizen. This is happening in an area where, in summer, excavation work is not supposed to be allowed.

The current permit for development on this site was renewed in February 2019 even though no work had been done here until then. This is despite the fact that the Planning law requires that in this case there should have been a reconsideration of the development in the light of new policies that came into force since the original permit was issued.

This was confirmed by the Court of Appeal last May, which declared that even though the developer had submitted the commencement notice, this alone was not enough to satisfy the rules on the renewal of development permits.

It was this decision of the Court that led to a frenzy of excavation work which is causing great damage to the health of the residents because the developer is trying to bend the rules to renew his permit. Moreover there is no monitoring of the excessive noise and dust that is being generated.

It is yet another case where the interests of the residents are being completely ignored and where the developers are literally being allowed to do as they please with the blessing of the regulatory authorities, which are failing their duties. This case leads to the justified observation that the authorities are failing their duties, because they do not provide any refuge for the resident, concluded Cacopardo.

Gauci said that once again ADPD is at the forefront in standing up for the interests of residents who are affected by such projects as we were with residents in L-Iklin, in Marsaskala, and in Birżebbuġa, among many other localities.

We insist again that there is a need for a moratorium on large projects, these are simply not needed. Even more so when we know the huge number of empty residences in our country. In fact, this very locality - St Paul’s Bay - has the largest number of unused places in Malta. According to the latest Census, 36.3 per cent of residences in St Paul’s Bay are empty or barely used. Why build more apartments when we already know that most of them will remain vacant?

We also insist that no work is carried out on sites about which a planning appeal has been submitted. There is a need for the authorities to really protect the common good and for the residents to be listened to as an important part of the planning process for such massive developments.

The Planning Authority needs to really do what it was founded for - Making Malta and Gozo a more pleasant and desirable place to live (as stated in its mission and vision statement) - and stop giving permits blindly without analyzing in depth the impacts of what is being proposed.

Perhaps the time has come, as we previously proposed in Electoral Manifestos, that for development projects that will leave a disproportionate impact on the surrounding residents should require the approval of the same residents, since we cannot rely on the authorities to protect our rights as citizens, who have the right to live in peace in our homes, concluded Gauci.