A few months after he was appointed the parliamentary secretary for lands in 2013, the then Planning Authority approved an Outside Development Zone (ODZ) application to turn a dilapidated rural development belonging to Ian Borg (now the Minister for Infrastructure in Robert Abela’s administration) into a home.
In 2018, the Planning Commission granted Borg a permit to turn a field adjacent to his house into a swimming pool and landscaped recreation area. But an appeal court overturned that decision, recommending that it should be reconsidered by an appeals tribunal with a different composition.
The matter has just come before the Planning Commission, which has resolved the issue in favour of minister Borg. He has been granted his long-awaited permit for a swimming pool next to his house. It lies on ODZ land in the hamlet of Santa Katerina in the limits of Rabat.
The reasons given for approval are interesting. The commission concluded that the project was acceptable because, unlike Borg’s previous application for a permit, the swimming pool is to be sited on “disturbed ground.”
The 40-square metre diamond-shaped pool would fit into an agricultural reservoir without taking up any further land.
During the hearing, the objector, Noel Ciantar, argued that the project was a ‘redevelopment’, not ‘a new development’ and it transgressed policies in the Local Plan which specifically prohibit the development of swimming pools.
However, the Planning Commission, under Martin Camilleri, unanimously concluded that the proposal was indeed completely different to the original application. Moreover, the Local Plan policy in question allowed new developments as it did not involve any further land being taken up.
Whatever the merits of the interpretation of the planning policy, the whole affair leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
Any objective scrutiny of this sorry saga might find that, technically, all the rules and procedures affecting this planning application have been followed, apparently to the letter.
But the public also knows that lawyers or architects who know their way through the arcane and permissive rules governing ODZ would invariably find a way to breach them to their client’s advantage.
The essence of this case lies in questions about whether a cabinet minister – like Borg (currently the Minister for Infrastructure) – has acted within the spirit of the planning rules. Should he not have paused before pursuing his permit after the initial concerns about it were raised two years ago?
A minister who was sensitive to the implications of what he was doing – and the political backlash which it was bound to attract from those not as privileged – would surely have withdrawn his bid after the appeal court found against him since it clearly cast doubt on the propriety of what he was doing.
In the court of public opinion, Borg, through his actions, has been condemned – rightly or wrongly – for showing disdain towards the environment and the sensitive matter of land use as he bulldozed ahead with his road building projects.
As a prominent public figure, he has also undermined the commitment made by the new minister for planning to protect ODZ and has set a poor example to the rest of the population that planning rules are not to be respected but may be circumvented by any technical planning device available.
Is it any wonder then that Malta’s planning rules are regarded with such cynical contempt?