The Ġustizzja għal Artna campaign this morning wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, urging him to withdraw the malicious so-called planning reform and instead initiate discussions on genuine planning reform in the spirit of collaboration and unity.

Last week, the campaigners held a protest march in Valletta which attracted the participation of thousands of activists.

They are appealing to the PM to withdraw the bills, saying that otherwise they would have no option but to "intensify" their fight.

The letter is being reproduced in full below:

We are writing to you with a sense of urgency and deep concern regarding the present situation. As we had written to you in our letter last July - only a few days after the Government presented the planning bills to Parliament - the very foundations of decency and democracy are being threatened by laws that will dismantle all remaining safeguards protecting citizens against greed.

Since that time, the people's justified anger at this attempt to undermine the interests of the common person in order to favour those of powerful developers has become increasingly evident. At this stage, and on the basis of these laws, no form of consultation can appease this anger or repair this so-called "reform", which is flawed at its very core precisely because it was conceived with the wrong intention: that of enriching the few at the expense of the common good.

We therefore deeply regret that, following the launch of the Ġustizzja għal Artna campaign and last Saturday's protest, you have shown your intention to persist with these laws. We believe that it is neither wise nor just for the Government to ignore the call of thousands of citizens and over seventy organisations from every walk of life - from residents to students, from hobby groups to academics.

For this reason, we once again urge you to withdraw these two bills and the three legal notices immediately. The people do not deserve to live under this constant threat, awaiting the destruction of their basic rights and the places they live in and cherish so dearly.

As we have insisted on several occasions, this is not a battle we wish to fight. We would much rather sit around a table and discuss the planning reform that our country so urgently needs. We have already expressed this desire several times, for instance in 2020 and again in 2023, when we presented a set of proposals for changes in laws and policies that, if implemented, would provide citizens with peace of mind and a better quality of life for everyone.

While we regret that these proposals were ignored by you, and that you instead chose to heed only the wishes of developers, we believe it is never too late.

We still have the opportunity to work together - involving the various groups in society, including residents, farmers, hobbyists, and all economic, cultural, and social sectors - to achieve a planning reform that strengthens, rather than weakens, our country.

We therefore make a heartfelt appeal for you to withdraw this legislative package and instead issue a White Paper on planning reform. This is the spirit of collaboration and unity we wish to see and participate in.

However, in the absence of such action, and in the context of an enormous threat posed by bills that read like a wish-list for developers, you will leave us with no choice but to intensify our struggle in favour of Ġustizzja għal Artna.