ADPD seeks to save ‘the little that is left before it is too late’

The rationalisation exercise should be discarded immediately and land which used to be outside the development zone (ODZ) should be returned to that status, ADPD – The Green Party Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said Saturday.

As long as there is one last remaining sliver of land that can be saved, we will continue our fight to safeguard agricultural land and stop this unbridled development, he said at a press conference in Nigret in Żurrieq, where once again another large tract of what is currently arable land is being slated for development.

Cacopardo recalled how the Maltese Parliament had approved a resolution on the socalled rationalisation exercise in 2006 which changed the status of large tracts of land that until then were outside the development zone (ODZ) to ‘within scheme,’ thus making them 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.

Few are those that remember that the decision to allow such developments had been taken in 2006, thanks to a PN-led government and cabinet of ministers led by Lawrence Gonzi. The planned destruction was spearheaded by then-Minister George Pullicino. Alternattiva Demokrattika and eNGOs had objected at the time. The Labour Opposition had voted against it in Parliament but did not change anything about it when it found itself in Government in 2013. ADPD has been the only political party that has unequivocally stated that such land should not be built upon in all its electoral programmes since 2008. It is futile for the parties in Parliament declare their love for green spaces when they are both in cahoots not to repeal the 2006 rationalisation exercise.

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

“The rationalisation exercise should be discarded now and land which used to be outside the development zones (ODZ) should be returned to that status. As long as there is the last remaining square metre of land that can be saved, we will continue our fight to save it from senseless development, before it is too late,” concluded Cacopardo.