The shadow minister for the environment insisted on Tuesday that the government should stop blaming the 2006 land rationalisation exercise for the confusion in the land planning sector in which Malta had now found itself.

In a statement, Stanley Zammit said Malta needs a Planning Authority that is focused on planning, more than on controlling development. 

The Robert Abela government, he said, should stop blaming decisions taken 17 years ago to justify the confusion which the current government had brought about through its ambiguous and contradictory policies of the past 10 years.

He said that the present government had stagnated planning and intentionally frozen or delayed the updating of plans and policies in an attempt to give the impression that they could not be revised.  

The lack of planning had led to confused methodologies where policies were ignored or wrongly interpreted and where decisions were taken without demographic, environmental, economic and social considerations.

Zammit said the government should immediately launch a process for the revision or, if needed, replacement or removal of local plans and policies on the basis of studies such as carrying capacity and the SPED (Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development ).

Similarly, it should plan "rationalised zones" and determine what development could take place within them.

Communities should be involved from the outset in such processes and the common interest should come before the interests of the government.  

He said the Nationalist Party would continue to work for a radical planning reform after 10 years of free market. The planning system, he said, should be holistic, clear, accountable, transparent, fair and one which prioritised the quality of life and sustainable development.