Labour promises setting up of environment ministry

A Labour government would establish a ministry dedicated solely to the environment, in order to give the issue top priority, MLP deputy leader Joe Brincat yesterday told an extraordinary conference called to discuss the party's environmental policy.

The policy document is called 'A healthy environment for our health'.

Labour's message, said Dr Brincat, was that education was needed for improvement to be made. Laws alone were useless.

Speaking about the "rape of Malta's historical heritage", he said there would come a time when the block of apartments being built in the middle of Vittoriosa bastions would be torn down and the place restored to its previous state.

Referring to the proposed development in Qala, he said it was not acceptable that valleys were "stolen" for speculation, because it was the people who would suffer as a result.

Dr Brincat said that if the environment was neglected, it would affect people's health, and a cleaner environment also made economic sense.

Another speaker was the MLP's environment spokesman Joe Mizzi, who attacked the Malta Environment and Planning Authority for "working against the environment".

On the one hand MEPA stated there was enough land for 20 more years of development, but on the other hand approved construction in green areas, he said.