KSU and 18 other student organisations endorse Saturday protest on PA reform
Associations call on government to revoke Bills 143 and 144
Nineteen different student organisations have endorsed calls to revoke two controversial planning reform bills and urged young people to attend a national protest to be held on Saturday morning.
The call follows a raft of similar endorsements for Saturday’s protest made by various NGOs and lobby groups as well as more than 150 academics.
In a statement, the 19 student organisations warned that Bills 143 and 144 would lead to the Planning Authority becoming more powerful than parliament, and the courts weakened.
“The obligation for the Planning Authority to consider the environmental impact of development will be removed. The Planning Board will have the power to ignore planning plans and policies. It will become harder to amend planning policies in the future to meet our country’s environmental needs. It will become more difficult to fight in favour of the environment and against overdevelopment,” the student groups said.
Among the 19 organisations is the University Students Council, KSU, which represents the more than 12,000 students that attend the University of Malta.
The organisations want the government to withdraw plans to overhaul planning laws, hold a broader public consultation on the country’s vision regarding development and in the meantime introduce an urgent measure to suspend projects that are being appealed.
A group of women activists who form part in various NGOs endorsing Saturday’s protest have also specifically encouraged women to show up in Valletta at 10am on Saturday.
“Malta is still a patriarchal society with women more involved in family care. Therefore when green spaces disappear, when pollution increases, when our villages are smothered in concrete, it is women who care for sick children and elderly patients who are unwell due to a harmful environment,” they said in a statement.
“Malta’s poor planning contributes to Malta’s low birth rate as young couples are feeling the reality of high prices, unaffordable rents, dwindling public spaces and politicians who don’t listen to the public, putting profit before people.”
The government quietly introduced plans to revamp planning laws last July and hoped to pass the bills into law within the space of a week.
That plan was disrupted due to massive public backlash to the proposals. Prime Minister Robert Abela then pledged further consultation and instructed a group of ministers to work on revising the proposals.
It is understood that work to revise one of the bills, which concerns reforming the appeals process for planning permits, is almost concluded. Many of its most controversial provisions have been retained. Work to revise the second bill, which would grant the Planning Authority much broader powers to overrule local plans, remains ongoing.
A third piece of legislation - a legal notice that would effectively provide a path to making illegal constructions on Outside Development Land legal - is also planned by Abela's government.
Demonstrators will gather in Valletta outside the Prime Minister’s office in Castille Square at 10am on Saturday.
Student organisations endorsing the protest
- Front Żgħażagħ għall-Ambjent (FŻA)
- Kunsill Studenti Universitarji (KSU)
- Għaqda Studenti tal-Liġi (GħSL)
- European Law Students Association (ELSA)
- Junior Chamber of Advocates (JCA)
- Society for Architecture & Civil Engineering Students (SACES)
- Malta Medical Students' Association (MMSA)
- Earth Systems Association (ESA)
- Betapsi Malta
- Health Students’ Association (MHSA)
- Gozo University Group (GUG)
- Department of English Student Association (DESA)
- University Engineering Student Association
- Association of Students of Commercial Studies (ASCS)
- Classics and Archaeology Students' Association (CASA)
- Science Students' Society (S-Cubed)
- MKSA - Media & Knowledge Sciences Association (MKSA)
- Criminology Students' Association (CSA)
- The Malta International Relations Student Association (MIRSA)
Women activists endorsing the protest
- Astrid Vella, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar
- Christine Cassar, Moviment Graffitti
- Maria Grazia Cassar, Din l-Art Helwa
- Tricia Camilleri, The Archaeological Society
- Carmen Bajada, Gozo heritage activist
- Annamaria Baldacchino, Sliema Residents Association