The planning conundrum

There was a time when every Thursday morning would find me without fail attending the Mepa (as it was called in those days) public hearings.

Ibecame part of the furniture and, uniquely, my attendance spanned both sides of the 2013 election and the change of government. I enjoyed my time hugely and today can see some of the projects that were discussed then coming along.

Then my duties changed and I could not continue attending Mepa.

Many times we remember last night’s big issue but forget all about the much larger issue of the preceding days. I remember, for instance, the huge debates about The Hilton where, in the words of one of the protagonists then, we created a bay that the Creator had not seen fit to create. Where is that debate today? The Hilton has been accepted and it forms part of the landscape.

When it was all over, I asked (the late) Gorg Fenech whether it had all been worth it and he almost blew a fuse until Alfred Mifsud, sitting next to him, suggested he had maybe misunderstood my question.

Other controversial applications and permits predated my times at Mepa, such as Tigné Point, Fort Cambridge and, of course, City Gate – and the whole power station saga.

Malta is a very small island that is always getting smaller, and land is at a premium. It has always been so and will always continue to be so.

Getting land under your control will always remain the preferred way for a Maltese to become rich: hence the multiplicity of pressures and the subsequent controversies and the pulling down of so many old, sprawling properties and their replacement by multiple apartment blocks. And the enormous change in our old village cores and landscapes.

The controversies of the past include the one regarding the composition of the Planning Authority Board. When Labour came into power it did away with the members of the outgoing Mepa board (mostly seconded from various authorities) and instead appointed its new members.

My impression was that the new members were more knowledgeable about development than the former ones, but since then there have been cases of conflict of interest that had not previously been declared.

In my opinion, the situation could have been better managed. And anyway, whenever government applications were considered, the government appointees always voted solidly in favour, whether it was City Gate or Central Link.

The problem in a recent case was about the controversial application by a private developer to turn a derelict room on the Qala garigue into a villa on a headland. Prime Minister Muscat said that the PA’s decision was ‘technically correct’ but wrong just the same. He said that the regulations on this matter were either wrong or not clear. He spoke to Minister Ian Borg about it and the Minister, who drives road-widening with unparalleled gusto, seems to have lost his urgency on the regulatory aspect.

It is funny how we seem to learn only with hindsight. The Prime Minister has been in power since 2013 and countless derelict rooms in ODZ have been turned into villas all over Malta and Gozo but this seems to have been the first time such a furore has been created, and the widespread practice was noted.

The PA – and its parent,

MEPA – have allowed far more damage to the country than the repair and enlargement of a derelict room in the countryside. Actually, one has to go back to pre-Mepa times, to the years of ministerial diktat under Lorry Sant, and the ghastliness of Bugibba and Marsascala.

Then PAPB was created – but still people were not happy. Then Mepa was created – and this brought down the government. So, under Muscat, Mepa was split in two and actually the number of applications and permits mushroomed. The policies and their handling were liberalised but still people are not satisfied when they decry the construction mania that closes streets, pollutes the environment and damages neighbouring properties.

It is clear that we have not found an acceptable way of dealing with land and time is running out – maybe it has run out already. This state of affairs has many parents – from the crazy rationalisation exercise under the PN to add a third storey under this government.

It is useless for the Prime Minister – after all this time – to focus on one single regulation and not address the entire issue. It is an issue that cannot be addressed by just one Prime Minister, however well-intentioned, and neither can it be settled by appointing a representative of a political party on to the board. The PN was right to remove its representative from the board and as for the PL’s counterpart, the quality of his public response shows how limited his contribution can be (as those who know him from pre-MP years could say).

Mepa, sorry PA, has grown and grown and includes many valid people who should not be tarred by the misdeeds of a few. The current change at the top could, should, be a good occasion to begin a thorough reform, but something tells me this is precisely what will not take place.