The new chairman of the Environmental Resources Authority, architect Vince Cassar, made a case for changing planning laws to give his authority a veto on planning applications.
Cassar is the former chair of the Planning Authority and is widely regarded as a rare voice of reason in the sector.
He replaces Victor Axiak who, by contrast, has disappointed and infuriated the local civil society, to the point where a number of organisations had asked for his resignation in the wake of a series of controversial decisions and endorsements.
There is little doubt about Cassar’s intentions, as his statements in parliament echo the cries of activists on the need for reform.
He must be fully aware of the gargantuan task of motivating the ERA and restoring it to its status of authority, since this regulator has – like pretty much every other authority in every other sector – shown itself to be rather toothless and unwilling to enforce the laws.
Under Axiak’s tenure, in fact, the ERA had secretly changed conditions for Fortina to build a jetty during the summer months, or stood back when
Infrastructure Malta carried out unauthorised trenching works in Dingli, and when the Gozo Ministry brutishly laid out the infrastructure for the kiosks on Comino.
A veto is a powerful tool but it needs to be placed in the right hands.
It remains to be seen, for example, whether Cassar will be able to impose his vision on the rest of the board and, in the age of CEOs having more executive power than ministers, whether the ERA is to be trusted with taking the right decisions.
Or, will the new chairman revise the ERA’s assessment of Hili’s Comino development?
In this regard, the creation of new government agencies poses a threat to ERA’s standing among other authorities. The environment regulator can be easily seen as a minnow among heavily-funded entities such as Infrastructure Malta and Project Green, not to mention the secretive Lands Authority and the authentic circus that the Planning Authority has become.
Ironically, Cassar’s veto proposal would not have spared some highly controversial decisions on major projects from being taken.
Three developments presented by former Building and Construction Authority chair Maria Schembri Grima were approved in front of a three-person commission instead of the planning board.
Two of these projects, in Balzan and Birkirkara, are being proposed by Joseph Portelli, while the third is a hotel in a residential zone proposed by Malta Development Association president Michael Stivala.
The ERA, local councils, residents and NGOs have no vote on these boards and, therefore, the right to exercise the veto is simply not there. Between them, 205 new dwellings and an 11-storey hotel – not to mention “ancillary facilities” – will be congesting busy residential areas even further; their approval was fast-tracked to bypass proper scrutiny.
Cassar also stated that ERA does not communicate its vision sufficiently.
But he, too, needs to understand the wave of cynicism surrounding the authorities and their perception.
Reinstating confidence in a weak authority such as his requires serious actions and the intention to change direction whenever decisions affecting our limited environmental resources are taken.
Public sentiment, too, ought to be gauged on environmental matters. For too long, quality of life has come under attack by private interests which, as recent events confirm, have a degree of influence on the work of the authorities.
Only the determination to do the right thing, without pressures from said interests, will see the ERA turn into a respectable authority.