The Malta Chamber of Planners on Friday appealed of a revision of the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) and the Rural Policy and Design Guidance for the reinstatement of a solid planning foundation that would ensure proper planning that would protect the environment and provide citizens with a high quality of living.

In a statement, it referred to the Planning Authority’s approval in the past days of a huge sheep farm in Bidnija and a 15-storey tower in Ta’ Xbiex. In both applications, the case officer concluded that the proposed development was in line with current policy.

Without entering into the reasoning and justifications brought about in the case officers’ reports, “which at times attempt to justify the impossible and the unacceptable”, possibly owing to pressures by superiors, if current policies permitted such development then was something seriously wrong with them.

The SPED document and the policies, it said, had been formulated in such ambiguity that anything could practically be justified and approved for development.

The Rural Policy and Design Guidance, which also has a history of blatant decisions which scarred the rural environment, had been up for revision for more than a year.

This current document on which decisions were still being based needed to be revised with urgency but with due diligence to ensure that proper policies were put in place to safeguard the rural environment.

Procrastination over its revision would only lead to further degradation of the rural environment.

The planners noted that there were instances in the past where policies were clear yet their interpretation left a lot to be desired and the deciding bodies often disregarded the policies. 

Members of the deciding bodies often decided to determine an application on personal opinion or bias, rather policy criteria.  Officials, the chamber said, were there to apply the policy and prompt change, if necessary, where existing policies did not reflect the spirit of the policy in question and not to determine development proposals on a whim.

The chamber said it understood that the current situation was not an easy one and the deciding bodies had to operate in ways that were different from the norm.

However, deciding bodies should not take advantage of the situation and blatantly approve development because public participation was somewhat limited.

The online public hearings might discourage some from participating so was not achieving the spirit of public consultation and did not allow the conveyance of emotion, emphasis and importance of certain arguments.

The fact that one had to book days before to be allowed to participate was not the right way to operate, the planners said.