Environmental NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar has strongly condemned a request to declassify three sites from the public domain, accusing the state of failing to conserve the environment for future generations.
Times of Malta reported last year how the Planning Authority was running a public consultation on whether it should declassify the site at the Chalet in Sliema, as well as two sites in Qawra from the public domain, despite requests to transfer several sites into the public domain for the enjoyment of all remaining in limbo.
The public consultation closed on Thursday.
Plans for the two sites
The government recently published a call for proposals for the Sliema Chalet that asks prospective bidders to take on a 65-year lease with a minimum capital investment of €3.2 million.
The other two sites lie close to each other on the Qawra seafront and appear to be occupied by private lidos.
Last year, the PA approved an outline permit submitted by AX Hotels to redevelop the seaside lidos of the Sunny Coast Hotel, Luzzu and the Seashells resort to be integrated with a “network of pedestrian spaces” that include a promenade walk and piazzas.
Ironic use of public domain law
In a press release on Friday, the FAA said that in submissions to the PA it outlined the irony that the first use of the public domain law since it was enacted was to declassify sites rather than add them to the public domain.
The PA, they said did not present adequate justification for declassifying these sites, saying only that they are earmarked for projects that “serve both private and public interests”. This, the FAA, is too generic a reason and therefore meaningless.
“FAA considers that this motivation is so wide that it can apply to anything and any site in the Maltese Islands and would set an ugly precedent for the declassification of all Public Domain sites,” they said.
“Practically any site in Malta can have projects or developments that “serve both private and public interests”. Allowing this would render the concept of Public Domain as meaningless and no longer extra commercium.”
The consultation, the FAA charged, is a sham and accused the PA of being underhanded for launching the consultation during the Christmas period “in order for it to fly under the radar”.
They also claimed that the declassification proposal is against the spirit of Article 9 of the Constitution of Malta, which requires the state to safeguard the landscape and conserve the environment for present and future generations.
“It is ironic that since the law was enacted, the first implementation is declassification and not the promised addition of sites to the Public Domain. FAA has proposed some 22 additional sites but despite the Government’s claimed intention in the White Paper, only one has been included in the Public Domain,” they said.
“The justification for the declassification has not been made and the public is being kept in the dark as to the purpose of the declassification contrary to the letter and spirit of the law. Consequently, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar can only condemn the proposed declassification.”