A panel tasked with reviewing a controversial policy allowing ‘backdoor’ developments in Outside Development Zones has rarely met since it was set up a year ago.

Despite mounting public concern that the controversial Rural Policy was being used to turn countryside plots into large developments, two members of the panel told Times of Malta that it has gone months without meeting.

“There was a good six months when we did not even meet once. There has been little to no progress on reforming this policy and the panel has achieved very little,” one member said.  

The panel includes Planning Commission chairperson Elizabeth Ellul, who first drafted the Rural Policy.  On Sunday, she said “the time is ripe” to change the current rules. 

Planning Commission chairperson Elizabeth Ellul.

Other members on the panel include Malta Developers Association president Sandro Chetcuti, and environmentalist Alan Deidun – although it is understood that he recently tendered his resignation. 

Published in 2014, the contentious policy has made it much easier to build on land designated as being in an Outside Development Zone.

Chief among the objections is a provision allowing landowners to build in ODZ areas if they can prove that structures on site were inhabited at some point in the past.  

Critics say this has been abused by developers who have applied to turn tiny agricultural rooms, such as farm stores, into large ODZ construction sites.

The policy came into the spotlight last week after outrage over an application was approved to turn a small dilapidated rural building in Qala into a countryside villa. 

After criticism from the Opposition and members  of the ruling Labour party, Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli announced he would not be forging ahead with the project.

Developer Joseph Portelli renounced a permit allowing him to turn this small room into a sprawling villa.

Pressure, however, is mounting on the authorities to close the loopholes allowing these ODZ developments to apply for permits in the first place. 

One other member who sits on the reform panel said the last meeting was held around two months ago and could not recall a meeting before that. 

And, even if the panel can get enough members together to hold a meeting, members said they often got held up talking about other matters that should be introduced to a reformed policy, rather than fixing existing clauses as was their brief. 

Meanwhile, although the PA panel has made little headway when it comes to reforming the policy, the authority has turned to the public for suggestions. 

None of the members contacted were able to outline what this review panel had actually achieved in the past 12 months.

Last month, the PA urged the public to read through the existing policy and “identify provisions which might be outdated, confusing or require clarification”. 

Stakeholders and the public may submit their comments on the draft objectives by email to rural.policy@pa.org.mt.

The closing date for submissions is November 15.