Strong with the small, weak with the big
The much-criticised Planning Authority stooped to a new low in the past week.
This after it ordered the destruction of a stone garden that a man had, out of his own free will, created out of what was previously pretty much a derelict dump at Top of the World in Għargħur.
The garden – termed as an “illegal development” by the PA – was the work of a single man, Ronnie Gauci, who spent his days fashioning stone creations for it, tending to the plants and flowers that he had planted, and even caring for a small pond which was created once the rubbish was removed.
Passers-by this week however were met with Ronnie not taking care of his creation, but tearfully taking it apart.
The PA threatened Ronnie with a €50,000 fine if the garden is not demolished and removed.
The situation has prompted livid reactions from the public – and rightly so.
This is a classic case of a much-maligned and criticised authority choosing to prove how strong its enforcement can be with the average citizen – while at the same time, illegal development ravages the island.
The country would be a better place if this ironfisted approach to illegal development – where a developer has to either pay an exorbitant fine or level whatever he’s built back into the ground – would be applicable to all developers.
Instead however we have cases where the treatment of illegal developments was notably different.
An illegal zoo in Siġġiewi, for instance, was allowed to operate despite not having any permits for almost two decades – only to then be regularised against a €10,000 fine (yes, five times less than the fine Ronnie Gauci faces if he doesn’t destroy his stone garden).
Development magnate Charles Polidano has racked up over €700,000 in fines for his illegal developments at Montekristo, yet the PA has not moved in to demolish the whole place.
And what can we say about the raft of illegal boathouses and permanent caravans that have turned parts of the coastline into something more akin to a Brazilian favela than an idyllic part of the Maltese coast?
There have also been cases – including one reported by The Malta Independent around a year ago – of concrete batching plants which have been built illegally and have operated illegally for years. Ironically, they’re the same concrete batching plants providing some of the supplies sustaining the current debilitating development boom.
Those are but some examples – there are countless others.
The public perception has long been that the Planning Authority insists on being strong with the average citizen, and is then purposely weak with developers and contractors, allowing them to get away with any form of illegality.
Situations like this suggest that this perception may well be true.
It’s high time that the PA shows its teeth and brandishes its iron fist when it comes to dealing with the developers and contractors who seem to think that they can do what they want and as they please, rather than when it deals with the common citizen.
Only then will people start to believe that the authority exists as a credible institution which actually aims to protect Malta’s landscape and environment, rather than as a simple rubberstamper for the concrete invasion that has overtaken the country.