The former director general of the Planning Authority, Godwin Cassar, has died aged 75, his family said on Monday.

A chartered town planner, architect and civil engineer by profession, Cassar served the public service for several decades, advocating the need for comprehensive spatial planning.

His contribution was recognised by the Environment and Planning Authority through the prestigious Buonamico Award last year.

Cassar was instrumental in the late 1980s and 1990s in pioneering the establishment of the planning authority.

He spearheaded the creation of the structure plan for the Maltese Islands, local plans and several urban development and regeneration briefs and was also instrumental in environmental negotiations during EU accession between 1999 and 2004.

Cassar was born in Valletta in 1948 and graduated as an architect from the University of Malta in 1971.

He later obtained a postgraduate diploma at the Bowcentrum International Education (Rotterdam) in Housing, Planning and Building in 1975 and was a 1991 Salzburg Fellow.

He was elected Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute in January 1996 and in April of the same year, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

In July 1998 he was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University of Central England, Birmingham, in recognition of his services to planning.

Towards the end of his career, he was actively involved with university academia in formulating the national strategy for sustainable development.

After two years in private practice, he spent thirty-five years in public service, 12 of which were in housing development and a short spell in road development.

Between 1987 and 1992, he focused on the establishment of a comprehensive land-use planning system, including the development of a legislative, institutional and policy base incorporating a ‘state of the art’ national mapping function.

With the works department reform in 1992, which led to the setting up of the PA, he assumed the Directorship of the Planning Services Department and later Director of Planning and Chief Executive within the Planning Authority.

Following the 2001 merger of the then Environment Protection Department and the PA to become known as the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), he was appointed as its first director general.

He served as a member of several local and international committees including the Senior Committee of Officials European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning, Chairman Minerals Advisory Board, member of the National Commission for Sustainable Development; member of the Church Commission on Cultural Heritage and member of the EU expert group on Urban Environment.

Cassar was also the recipient of the Planning Authority’s 2019 President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement for services related to Architectural and Spatial Planning.

His funeral will be held on Wednesday at the Stella Maris Parish Church in Sliema.