Malta is still in time to save a “sizeable portion” of the two million square metres of land earmarked for development back in 2006, ADPD has noted.

The Green Party argued that local plans, which set out which areas can be built up, must be revised as soon as possible to prioritise environmental protection and quality of life considerations over speculation and economic interest.

Meanwhile, the country could still save large swathes of virgin land from speculative development, ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said.

“It is essential that the development zone boundary is restored to its 2006 position as far as is possible. It is not possible to keep developing further land. A sizeable portion of the two million square metres earmarked for development in 2006 is still undeveloped and can still be saved,” Cacopardo said.

Development in Malta is currently shaped by seven local plans and a document on the rationalisation of development zone boundaries, approved by parliament in 2006.

Those documents have since been blamed for the flood of over-development that has plagued Malta in the ensuing years. The Labour government pledged to revise local plans back in 2013, but eight years on that process has never come to fruition.

Planning Minister Aaron Farrugia has argued that it would cost the government “billions” in compensation to landowners if it were to roll back the 2006 changes – a claim that is disputed by legal experts – while Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech said this week that he was against revising the 2006 boundaries.

ADPD, on the other hand, argues that this is a necessary prerequisite for the damage to stop.

“Most of what our party predicted has occurred or is occurring,” Cacopardo said. “Whole areas all around Malta are being developed as evidenced by the protests of residents in all localities.”

He noted that apart from extending development boundaries, authorities had also relaxed rules for maximum building heights, leading to residents losing sunlight and limiting the impact of solar panels they had invested in.

“As a result, we are now witnessing various attempts to transform agricultural holdings into solar farms as a result laying to waste more agricultural land,” he said.

Marsascala 'an example of contradictions'

Cacopardo was speaking during an ADPD press conference held in Marsascala, next to the derelict Jerma Palace hotel site.

The now-derelict Jerma Palace Hotel in Marsascala. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

ADPD electoral candidate Brian Decelis said that the hotel site was a key example of the contradictions inherent in planning policies adopted by Malta’s two major political parties.

What was once a hotel that attracted tourists to the south of Malta was now earmarked for “monster development” featuring residential apartments and commercial outlets that would more than double its current footprint, he said.

Similarly, Transport Malta’s plans to turn Marsascala Bay into a yacht marina would further suffocate the locality and bring additional traffic and pollution to the town, Decelis said.

“Let’s forget once and for all the marina project but also add that if the Jerma site cannot be used strictly as a hotel it is returned to the public as an open space,” he argued.