The land rationalisation exercise should be discarded immediately and land which used to be outside the development zones (ODZ) should be returned to that status, Malta’s Green Party said on Saturday.

Addressing the press at Nigret in Żurrieq, where a large tract of arable land is being slated for development, ADPD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo, said the Party would continue the fight to safeguard agricultural land, “as long as there is the last remaining sliver of land that can be saved."

The proposed development at Nigret will see the destruction of almost 15,000 square metres of arable land, on the outskirts of a village in an area of two-storey terraced houses and next to typical countryside dwellings.

“If it is approved, this will pave the way for a massive development of over five storeys that will literally overshadow the surrounding residences and destroy arable land forever,” Cacopardo said.

He explained how the destruction of this tract of land as well as arable land in other locations was the result of the so-called rationalisation exercise in 2006 which changed the status of large tracts of land that until then were outside the development zones (ODZ) to ‘within scheme’ and so developable. 

This has made possible the proposals for development on land such as this one in Nigret in Żurrieq, without taking into consideration the cumulative impact of such a development.

ADPD Deputy General Secretary Dr Melissa Bagley recalled how during the past 17 years, from the early days of such destruction, ADPD has shone light on several localities that were being impacted by the rationalisation scheme. 

ADPD has been the only political party that in all its electoral programmes since 2008 has unequivocally stated that such land should not be built upon, Cacopardo said.

“It is futile that the parties in Parliament declare their love for green spaces when they are both in cahoots not to repeal the 2006 rationalisation exercise,” Cacopardo said.

“It is pointless to boast of the €700m being spent on the greening of urban spaces at the same time as the destruction and environmental disfigurement being faced by the Nigret fields continues unabated," he said.

"These should be safeguarded along the other large tracts of land totalling two million square metres that Parliament had sacrificed to development 17 years ago," he continued.