TMID Editorial: The government must not drag its feet on legislative change
A number of NGOs are calling on the government to provide timeframes for legislation that would stop anyone from carrying out works approved by a planning permit if the decision us under appeal, pending the appeal’s outcome.The Planning ministr
A number of NGOs are calling on the government to provide timeframes for legislation that would stop anyone from carrying out works approved by a planning permit if the decision us under appeal, pending the appeal’s outcome.
The Planning ministry had issued a statement at the end of August, in which it said that work was ongoing to review the appeals law for the permit process. It said that through the proposed legal revision, permits at appeal stage will be suspended until the appeals process before the EPRT or the courts concludes.
This legal change is something needed, and should have been introduced long ago. We have read stories appeals being filed only for works to begin regardless. If the appeal overturns the planning decision, what then? The developer might apply for sanctioning instead.
This law needs to be published quickly, and the government must be open to improvements to making it airtight, and not just push it through if some flaw is found just to look as though it would be doing something about the issue.
In their statement, the NGOs highlighted that “the recent decision taken by the Planning Authority to overturn a Court of Appeal judgement, which was presided over by the Honourable Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, was flagrantly abusive. The Planning Authority approved, through a summary procedure application, two penthouses that were deemed to be illegal and not conforming to planning policies.” This decision is an insult to the system as a whole.
The NGOs said that the fact that the “Planning Authority feels it can disregard the Court of Appeal’s declaration and final judgment and subsequently sanction the aforementioned property is not acceptable and accentuates the urgency with which the planning laws need to be amended.”
The government’s announced legal changes are not something that we can afford to have kept on a shelf. If an appeal is ongoing, allowing a development to continue will have consequences to the site itself.
Really and truly, these changes should be the start of a whole overhaul to the planning legislation that is currently in place. The government’s proposed’ legislative change will not solve everything, and there is a lot more that needs to be done. For too long has the government sat pretty on planning policies that are causing damage to the country we all love. By not seriously placing the importance in planning policies on protecting the characteristics that makes Malta appealing, the government is at fault for the continued uglification of the islands. Real changes are needed, ones that also take the impact of developments on the wider community more seriously.
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