Labour promises legal safeguards for parks, more afforestation
Government to consider compensation for those people whose solar panels are shaded by higher buildings
The PL announced plans for legal safeguards for parks among its electoral pledges on the environment on Wednesday.
Under the Labour Party’s plan the government will amend Malta’s local plans to ensure parks in development zones are shielded from any future development.
A Labour government will also do the same for Manoel Island and White Rocks, which are slated to become national parks, Prime Minister Robert Abela said. Manoel Island was formally returned to public hands on Wednesday morning, having been handed back to the state by the MIDI consortium.
In the afternoon party event, Abela also pledged that any government-owned land that was “rationalised” and moved into the development zone in 2006 will not be given up for speculation.
The prime minister and Labour leader was speaking moments after the Malta Development Association announced that the number of promise of sale agreements in April 2026 increased by 10 per cent when compared to last year.
Asked for comment, Abela said the government built parks in communities and also planned larger green projects including Manoel Island and White Rocks to "strike a balance" between construction and the creation of open recreational spaces.
He said that he has no intention of impinging on people’s so-called right to develop.
Abela was also asked about a slate of mega-block developments being proposed in the Nigret area of Żurrieq, including a Planning Authority application that residents say is partly on government land.
The prime minister said that he and the environment minister will be holding a meeting with residents.
“We are going to be hearing everyone’s concerns and where possible, find a solution,” he said.
Abela also pointed to concerns that a number of development applications in the area have come forward in the space of a few weeks.
“If there is what is called salami slicing -where a proposed development is broken down into several applications -the Planning Authority should be careful to ensure that these sort of tactics are not used,” he said.
During the press conference, Abela said a Labour government would continue its afforestation projects. The government planted 60,000 trees throughout the last legislature.
In 2022 the government pledged to plant 100,000 trees. That target will be achieved by next year, Abela said.
A large number of those trees will be planted in Siggiewi’s San Niklaw area, in the area where there are two old quarries. Those sites will be turned into a park, he pledged.
Abela also pledged aforestation projects in ’Wied Blandun, Wied il-Qlejgħa u Wied il-Għasel.
He said that works on a new €75 million plant to turn organic waste to energy would begin soon.
He also pledged to build a new reverse osmosis plant in Ħal-Far. The magnesium byproduct created when turning seawater to potable water will we sold on the open market, he said.
A new Labour government, Abela said, will also explore the possibility of introducing “solar rights” for those who invest in panels on their roofs - a means of ensuring that their sunlight will not be blocked. The PL government will consider paying a one-time compensation to those people whose PV panels end up in the shade because a neighbour’s building rises higher, he said.
The PL is exploring a formula for calculating such a one-time payout- it will consider the remaining service life of the panels and how much less energy the panels would be generating because of the adjacent development.