Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar coordinator Astrid Vella has quit a consultative committee set up by Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia in 2020, saying it is a “sham” that seeks to greenwash.

The Intelligent Planning Consultative Forum, Vella said, has proven that it exists to obfuscate and sideline opposition to ongoing planning issues. 

“We cannot continue to form part of an organisation that is essentially a sham to give credibility to the environmental authorities who are allowing certain developers to act with impunity, destroying much of Malta and Gozo in the process,” the FAA said in a statement announcing Vella’s resignation.

The IPCF was established in May 2020, bringing together representatives from the Chamber of Architects, Malta Developers Association, Malta Chamber of Planners, Planning Authority, Environment and Resources Authority and civil society. Its stated aim was to “identify proposals for key areas that require immediate action in the medium and long-term, with respect to the concept of intelligent planning in Malta.”

FAA coordinator Astrid Vella at a protest against a Sliema development in late 2021. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

In its first year, the forum was credited with helping to develop the government’s green walls initiative. Its members were given three key tasks to focus on in 2021, including work on a long-promised review of the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development, or SPED.

But the committee “hardly met at all” last year, the FAA said, and was instructed to focus on “non-essential issues”. 

The review of SPED, first announced by minister Farrugia in July 2020, has never materialised.

In its statement, the FAA listed several issues it believes are causing planning and environmental disasters in the country, from building height guidelines quietly amended in 2014 to the rampant destruction of heritage houses, the building up of open spaces and push to develop massive projects in small villages such as Sannat and Qala. 

“The ministerial attitude that NGOs have the option to appeal abusive permits is totally unacceptable,” the FAA said. “Why should NGOs and local councils spend all their financial and time resources to counter the Planning Authority's dereliction of duty?” 

To add insult to injury, the eNGO said, enforcement action has been almost completely scaled down while fines remain “risible”. 

The result is a climate of impunity for “cowboy developers”, the FAA said, with NGOs and the public disrespected by the PA and ERA and the government allowing developers to not pay for infrastructural works that their big projects require.