As widely expected, the first hundred days after the March general election brought with it a fresh spate of development applications. Various areas around the island, mostly composed of agricultural land, have been targeted for the construction of more apartments or the digging up of quarries, among others.

These “developments” have to be added to the list of countless others which never make the headlines, and to a number of other projects initiated by the government itself, including the construction of a runway for model planes in the pristine Wied Żnuber, in Birżebbuġa.

In Żonqor, Marsascala, there are plans to construct a massive block of apartments which will ruin the skyline and increase congestion in the area. This comes merely weeks after Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that the American University of Malta campus will not be built on a nearby ODZ. 

There’s no respite for residents, who have to contend with both public and private moneys directly affecting their quality of life. In a press conference about the Marsascala application, ADPD candidate Brian Decelis called for a moratorium on large-scale developments, echoing the proposal made by Moviment Graffitti and other NGOs in 2019. There’s more than merit to the idea, which may have been seen as excessive or even “extremist” up to a few years ago, but is no longer the case.

"In Żonqor, Marsascala, there are plans to construct a massive block of apartments which will ruin the skyline and increase congestion in the area. This comes merely weeks after Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that the American University of Malta campus will not be built on a nearby ODZ"

The numbers back ADPD and Graffitti’s reasoning. In the first quarter of this year, over 3,000 new dwellings were approved by the PA, a shocking 60 per cent increase over the number of permits approved in the same period last year. 

The PA also issued a record number of permits in 2018 and 2019 (12,885 and 12,485 respectively). 

Many of these permits are valid for more than the standard five-year period: former planning minister Aaron Farrugia had increased the validity of these permits by an extra two years because of the pandemic, even though this has not slowed down the onslaught of the construction industry.

Effectively, this means that the country is still facing the noise, dust, congestion and workplace deaths on applications decided more than four years ago. 

In the background of studies showing that housing supply is now outstripping housing demand, the PA’s direction to issue permit after permit looks increasingly senseless, if not outright mad.

The developers’ lobby, meanwhile, insists on pushing for further deregulation, which means many of them get away scot-free with deaths and injuries on their construction sites. There are also veiled calls for an even softer Planning Authority.

It is clear that this lobby has bought itself ample elbow power and is owed numerous “favours’ by the authorities. 

The greedy drive for profits does away with considerations on our quality of life, sustainability, aesthetics and the environment. Developers’ president Michael Stivala had said during the State of the Nation conference that “it’s useless attacking projects approved in line with regulations,” fully knowing that those regulations – including the 2006 local plans and subsequent rationalisation exercises – were drafted specifically to favour his lobby. 

For all the rhetoric from politicians and developers on the need to improve the situation, there is no interest in reform. Both PL and PN leaders have, for example, poured cold water on the reform of these local plans, and both repeated the same lie: if land within development zones is excluded and turned into ODZ land, the government would face legal consequences.

But while the right to develop land is not enshrined in the law, it becomes immediately apparent how the authorities have no wish for reforms, but only to bow down to the greed of an aggressive lobby as well as self-made contractors who have turned the island into an unreversible concrete jungle.