I remember well judge Maurice Caruana Curran, the founder of Din l-Art Ħelwa, and myself poring over the Draft Structure Plan and the setting up of the Planning Authority way back in 1989 or thereabouts. It was in our council room, cold and draughty and lit by a single 25-watt bulb.
As we huddled over the papers, we could not contain our excitement that, at last, Malta would have a real planning system, and the whole process would be removed from the clutches of politicians who had wrought so much damage to our countryside, to our towns and villages.
We had, at the time, the Planning Area Permits Board and the infamous Building Development Areas where planning was almost non-existent, run by the minister responsible, and where decisions seemed to be taken on whims, or worse.
The new Structure Plan looked at scheduling whole village cores, classifying the countryside into areas of high ecological value or high landscape value where protection would be afforded. It looked at issues of transport, zoning, and population growth holistically, to plan the physical development of the country, for we, the people, to enjoy in the best possible way.
Looking at the hotchpotch, ugly development that has taken place, the huge take-up of countryside as well as the congestion and pollution we now suffer, I can see that our optimism was misplaced, and that the planning process, indeed the Planning Authority was an abject failure. The politicians had regained ascendancy over the issuing of building permits, and the process was less to do with planning, and more to do with politics and expediency. We know that the planning boards were filled with enough political appointments to ensure the right result, that the planning laws were systematically redrafted (or should we say relaxed) by architects specialised at obtaining permits in ODZ or UCA areas. Consequently, the safeguards over our heritage evaporated. To seal its fate, the Environment Directorate was hived off to a separate authority and relegated to an advisory role, while the role of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage was rendered even more toothless.
However, the shocking revelations that the chairman of the Planning Appeals Board at the Planning Authority was an employee of the said authority (merely on leave), shows just how far the planning process was hijacked. How can the person adjudicating whether the Planning Authority’s decision of a particular permit was wrong, be judged by one of its own employees?
This is governance at its worst, even by the fact that the judgements on the major controversial projects tended to be given in the developers’ favour.
Will the new environment minister appoint people who are apolitical, upright and able to do the right thing?- Martin Galea
The same person has now been appointed as chairman of the authority.
There is now a recognition, even by the new administration itself, that things have gone too far, that the developers and speculators have had it their way for too long, and that the devastation caused by poor planning, the loss of our heritage, our open spaces, the increased traffic and pollution caused by indiscriminate building with no regard to traffic management, aesthetics and zoning, has impacted adversely on our way of life.
This to say nothing of the building practices of the developers who seem to have little regard for health and safety, evidenced by the dangerous and polluting practices they get away with. I would say they have little deterrence to change their ways. (My apologies to those contractors who are serious and tarred with the same brush.)
The new administration must address this seriously just as it has started or be forced to face the lack of good governance that has been exposed in other areas such as the police, the judiciary, and financial services.
There is some hope they may do this. The energetic new minister of the environment has been making the right noises, but will he have the power in cabinet to make the changes which will start to protect our environment and start the real process of planning as a holistic process, taking into account traffic, aesthetics, zoning, protection of the built and natural heritage, as well as enforcement?
Will he manage to allow the very able technical experts within the Planning Authority get on with their job, or will political interference still be the order of the day?
Will the new minister appoint people who are apolitical, upright and able to do the right thing or merely those under the long tentacles of the development lobby?
This new administration has the opportunity to pull Malta out of the shabby, third-world way of running the planning process and pull it into the 21st century where decisions are taken on the merits of a project (however controversial) and in accordance with best practice to meet the current and future needs of the country.
Martin Galea is council member of Din l-Art Ħelwa.