The Planning Authority issued almost 700 permits for projects outside development zones in Gozo over the past three-and-a-half years, figures tabled in parliament show.
In all, 666 permits were issued between the beginning of 2017 and last June.
With 114, Xagħra topped the list for ODZ permits while the smallest number was granted in Fontana.
Xagħra was followed by 60 in Nadur, 56 in Xewkija, 54 in Għajnsielem, 51 in Żebbuġ, 47 each in Qala and Kerċem and 45 in the quaint village of Għarb. There are 24 permits which cover various localities.
Despite the rather high number, Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia played down the figure, saying it represented only 2.4 per cent of the total number issued in Gozo during the same period, adding that most of the permits were for developments related to agriculture or fisheries or simply alterations to existing dwellings.
“Safeguarding rural areas is one of our priorities,” he told Times of Malta.
“The proposed new Rural Policy and Design Guidance 2020, which is currently at consultation stage, seeks to protect Malta and Gozo’s rural areas with a general presumption against development that is likely to have a direct or indirect adverse impact. The new rural policy will further protect the rural area while safeguarding the interests of farmers and the security of food supply.”
Farrugia was referring to changes to the new rural policy, which promises to reduce to a minimum permits for development in ODZ with the introduction of narrow-ended definitions that cannot be open to interpretation.
The new policy minimises development in rural areas
The new policy will allow such development for genuine uses that are also well defined.
“The new policy minimises development in rural areas, limiting this to genuine projects without killing the agricultural sector.
“We redefined definitions that were open-ended and were subject to interpretation,” Farrugia had said at the launch of the consultation period, which runs through August.
The new policy seeks to change aspects of another launched in 2014 that were open to interpretation, leading to controversial applications and decisions, such as the Qala development, which had sought to change a disused rural room into a fully-fledged ODZ villa.
This is probably one of the projects listed among the 47 ODZ permits granted in Qala, although it may have been removed when the developer, Gozitan magnate Joseph Portelli, renounced the permit to build the countryside villa.
The figures tabled in Parliament, in reply to a question by Gozitan MP Kevin Cutajar, do not give details on the type of development and neither on the developer.
Qala mayor Paul Buttigieg, perhaps one of the staunchest objectors to ODZ development, has spent the past decade or so battling projects like the Qala Creek Ħondoq project, the Ta’ Muxi villa, the souvenir shop overlooking Ħondoq Bay, the Tal-Marga development and the application for a ‘tool shed’ with a skylight and a parapet situated near Ħondoq on the way to Mġarr harbour.
He said he welcomed the much-needed reform of the rural policy, saying that most of the projects he objected to would not have even been considered had such policy been in place back then.