A national protest against the government’s planning reforms is set to take place this Saturday in Valletta.

Over summer the government published proposed reforms which were, to say the least, shocking.

Everyone knew that a Bill was coming that would change the law so that when a planning appeal is filed, the execution of a planning permit would not be able to be carried out until the appeal process concludes. That was, and is, a sorely needed change. It would prevent obscene circumstances where a developer would have completed construction while the permit is under appeal, only for the permit to be revoked, and that developer to then receive sanctioning by the Planning Authority later.

But the government decided to surprise everyone by introducing other changes, ones that could have a detrimental impact.

One example of a controversial proposal, is that the government wants to introduce a recency rule. Currently, if there is an inconsistency between policies, the existing Act establishes a hierarchy of priorities. But the Bills propose that if there is a conflict between policies in that hierarchy, then the latest policies would take precedence. This would effectively mean that if something is prohibited under a plan for instance, that could very easily be overridden with a new policy the PA introduces.

The government also wants to launch a widespread regularisation and concession exercise, allowing those who built illegally up to 2024 to, at the very least, get water and electricity connections to those illegalities through a concession.

So, all those who followed the law and didn’t build illegally are basically being told that had they just ignored planning policies they would be fine as long as they were willing to pay a bit more right? Its practically giving a gift to those who broke the law. Such a blanket offer doesn’t just send the wrong message, it is insulting to law abiding citizens.

These are just a couple of the issues with the planning reform proposals, but there are others. For example the Planning Authority CEO indicated plans to allow for 75% of owners of a block to apply to change building heights, a point which, during an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Executive President of Din l-Art Ħelwa Patrick Calleja said would lead to land speculation, and described it as bullying. One could easily imagine the hotchpotch skyline that would emerge.

The proposed reforms were introduced in the middle of summer, when people are not as focused on politics or government proposals. They resulted in an instant uproar, and the government, which had not held a public consultation exercise before then, had to hold a quick one. But that is not how things should have been carried out. The government should have consulted with civil society, engos and relevant stakeholders before coming out with its proposal for public consultation.

Such a disaster are the reforms, that Planning Minister Clint Camilleri already said that specific parts would be removed, such as the point giving the Planning Minister the power to revive expired permits.

ENGOs are calling for the outright revocation of the reforms and for the process to start from scratch. Calleja said that eNGOs don’t just want a piecemeal exercise where bits are removed. The process needs to start anew, he said, “with a proper consultation period with all stakeholders, eNGOs, civil society, taking place, with the aim of having a proper reform that would better our lives, not make them worse and line the pockets of a few people.”

While there are some positive points, such as increasing fines for illegalities, there are far too many damaging changes. The NGOs are right in their demands for the bills to be withdrawn and for a new, inclusive process, to be held. The aim should be to prevent Malta from repeating the disastrous planning the country has seen over the years.