Editorial: The great disappearing Act

It is shocking that the government enacts laws in the blink of an eye when it suits its purposes, but ignores others, simply pretending they do not exist.

This is what happened with the Public Domain Act, enacted in May 2016 by then environment minister José Herrera. He described it at the time as “revolutionary”, which it was.

The Act established that land declared as public domain cannot be destroyed, sold, transferred, granted under concession or used for commercial purposes. It would have put important sites beyond the reach of commercial interests, particularly relevant when you consider the developments that were still on the cards then.

So what happened since then? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The Bill was initially tabled as a private member’s bill by former PN MP Jason Azzopardi, who began working on it during his time as a minister in the Lawrence Gonzi administration.

Once the law was enacted, however, it was utterly ignored, even though nine sites were recommended by the Planning Authority to be given public domain status.

Looking at some of the sites on this list will raise many an eyebrow: had they been given this status, where would we be now?

Although previously established concessions or privately-owned areas could be not affected by the Act, there was still much that should have been done – and the Planning Authority did try.

For example, its recommendation was for the entirety of Comino and Fort Manoel, including the nearby beach, to be declared part of the public domain, while still respecting the Manoel Island concession and the planned hotel on Comino.

Bear in mind, that once the recommendation was made, the final step was a simple majority vote in parliament. However, instead, the Planning Authority recommendations languished for all those years.

Who stood to benefit? Certainly the intention was to respect “validly granted private rights”, which would have ruffled many feathers for all those who have taken over public land, whether on the foreshore or not, with what can only be termed ‘impunity’. That includes those who encroach on public land: for example, the coast from St George’s Bay to Sliema was one of the nine sites.

The Act could have protected a variety of sites from private development – or at least limited them to a temporary period: from waterways and aqueducts, natural springs and valleys, but also public roads, squares, woods, parks and areas of ecological or historical importance.

Although it got as far as the parliamentary committee in 2018, the process was held up because the information received from the Lands Authority about the ownership of the land was inconsistent and – according to then PA CEO Johann Buttigieg “almost certainly incorrect”.

And in that mystical way that this government has perfected, the issue disappeared down the rabbit hole, with no one left responsible, certainly not the Lands Authority nor the Environment and Resources Authority.

You can hardly blame the Planning Authority for stopping at nine sites – out of dozens nominated – if the message was so clearly given that this was probably just a public relations exercise, never really meant to challenge the status quo.

Herrera has stopped short of pointing fingers and stuck to praising the fact that at least the Act was still there and had not been repealed.

Hardly “revolutionary”…

One thing is definite: if we are to protect public domain from private greed, we have the tools to do so. There is no excuse to ignore the fact that they are already in our hands.