Bottle recycling scheme
As Nationalist MP Justin Schembri said: “Those who have been recycling for years will continue to do so, only to incur this extra 10c tax. I understand the importance of recycling... but this is simply ‘daylight robbery’ for those who have been recycling. Why not incentivise those that do not recycle with a coupon in the first place? Arm-twisting me this way is shameful.”
Photo: Matthew MirabelliHow true! I and many others like me have been going to Lidl Luqa to try to use the recycling machines only to find the monitor saying “bin is full” or the machine failed – encountered an error.
The way I see it, the people in general are trying to cooperate with this scheme only to find they are being taken for a ride and being ripped off in the process.
Francis Sammut – Luqa
Regularisation applications
We would like to draw readers’ attention to last Saturday’s editorial ‘The ODZ regularisation scam’.
The Planning Authority (PA) questions why the Times of Malta editorial keeps publishing incorrect or misleading statements on the proposed amendments to the Regularisation of Existing Development Regulations.
The figure quoted of 19,500 applications has nothing to do with the ODZ.
This number relates to regularisation applications that the PA has received since the regulations started in 2016. All these applications were for non-conformant issues for properties within the development boundaries.
One of the key criteria of the regularisation regulations was that no part of the site could fall beyond the development boundaries. So none of the 19,500 applications were for the regularisation of extra heights or anything else within ODZs. We hope this puts to rest the incorrect interpretation of this figure. The scope of the latest proposed amendments is to include those properties which have part of their site falling beyond the development boundaries.
For such properties to be even considered for potential regularisation, the site area needs to have already been covered by a development permit while the non-conformant issue needs to have been carried out before 2016.
The editorial accuses the authority of using a ‘classic tactic’ when it comes to ODZ figures. The newspaper claims that the PA purposely publishes vast amounts of data that the public cannot readily understand.
This is not the case.
The ‘tactic’ the authority adheres to is transparency whereby every application submitted and processed, including regularisation applications (RGs) can be individually scrutinised and followed.
This is how most media houses follow development applications so thoroughly.
Peter Gingell, communications office, Planning Authority – Floriana