The recent foray by the Gozo Tourist Association, an umbrella organisation which represents tourism operators on the sister island, denouncing the upsurge in construction activity on the island of Gozo and its deleterious impacts on the charm and appeal of the island to visitors, had all the trappings of crocodile tears.
For years, all those advocating the preservation of the Gozitan milieu were shot down by tourist operators on the islands, being accused of mothballing Gozo in a sort of perpetual ‘crib’ (presepju) through their calls. The former have always been called out for supposedly opposing the economic development of Gozo, with statistics on the flow of young Gozitans going to Malta for employment purposes being bandied about.
The same tourist operators who have suddenly discovered their green credentials were swift to lobby with successive administrations for more concessions, including extra floors being added to existing hotels in Gozo as height limitations were relaxed.
Similarly, as catering establishments around the island are sprawling and cluttering their facilities (tables, chairs, etc.) over public promenades and the foreshore, not a single whimper of protest was to be heard from the same GTA, despite such misdemeanours being a grievance with tourists visiting the island.
Individual development applications by Joe Portelli, Joseph Farrugia and associates, including preposterous ones (say, swimming pool along the valley side at Xagħra, massive residential blocks at Qala and at Sannat, seven-storey retirement home at Għarb), are never denounced by the GTA, let alone by individual operators who choose the refuge that anonymity provides through statements issued collectively through the association.
Alfred Sant recently joined the Gozo overdevelopment fray by denouncing the despoilment of the island as well as future plans for the submarine tunnel and for the Xewkija airstrip. Sant was taken to the cleaners for doing so, with calls to the tune of “you are 20 years late Dr Sant” doing the rounds on social media.
I beg to differ with Sant’s detractors, given that he has valiantly chosen to take a stand which potentially puts him at odds with his largely comatose MEP colleagues as well as with the mainstream construction lobby.
One can concede that Sant is currently in a privileged position, that of speaking from an influential podium – the MEP one – which is not subject to the whims of district-based national elections and can thus afford to be more critical in his diatribes. A fitting analogy would be that of President George Vella, who is similarly shorn of re-election concerns.
However, and this cannot be underscored enough, neither Vella nor Sant or any other personality who chooses to take the plunge is buffered against flak from the cynics, who, either out of partisan or out of personal considerations, decide to take a swipe against those who dare speak out against the status quo.
Memories of the en bloc resignation of Mepa’s then Development Control Commission (DCC) in 2011 over the Auditor’s Lidl Safi supermarket development report have probably faded in oblivion, as have then prime minister Laurence Gonzi’s feeble attempts to reign in public outcries over the infamous 2006 scheme rationalisation exercise by taking MEPA under his own (OPM) portfolio.
The recent foray by the Gozo Tourist Association denouncing the upsurge in construction activity in Gozo had all the trappings of crocodile tears- Alan Deidun
I am revisiting such milestones within MEPA’s angst-punctuated existence since I genuinely believe that the time is ripe for yet another quantum leap, for a massive top-down approach through which the prime minister himself intervenes to usher in an overhaul of the local planning system.
Gozo should be assigned a special status within the revamped planning framework, with an added level of scrutiny and vetting of planning and development applications relevant to the island. This would ensure that, at least, for Gozo, decisions on such matters are not taken in a peremptory fashion by three-member, non-inclusive, non-representative boards which are dominated by architects.
The GTA as well as Gozitan local councils (given the recent initiative embarked upon by Gozitan mayors advocating the need to reign in overdevelopment), environmental NGOs and residents should all be represented appropriately on such a proposed decision-making board, which should not be allowed to be swayed by the interests of the construction lobby.
All PA decision-making boards should be more representative and the permissive Rural, Policy and Design Guidelines, ushered through in 2014, should definitely be revised, fulfilling the promise made by then environment minister Aaron Farrugia way back in 2019.
Prime Minister Robert Abela pledged to delve deeper into the reasons behind the record abstentionism during the last general election. Well, it definitely does not take a rocket scientist or even a Times of Malta survey (which, in fact, did confirm the gist of the argument) that overdevelopment and its many implications are a constant source of exasperation and frustration for locals.
If no game-changing intervention is forthcoming, then those voting with their feet next time round will be even more numerous.
Buoyed by the epic electoral majority at the last polls and with the next general election eons away, it is incumbent on the current administration to strike an environmental notch by taking decisive action on the planning and development side.
If implemented wisely, such action would not necessarily translate into loss of votes, as some might believe.
Dear prime minister, the ball is firmly in your court.