Carmel Cacopardo

The debate on the required changes to land use planning regulation in Malta has reached a very dangerous stage. Bill 143 and Bill 144 have a very clear objective: to ensure that as many safeguards as possible against abusive development, those which are still existent, are done away with the soonest.

The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, last month, in his comments on my complaint relative to the appointment of the Planning Authority’s Executive Chairman pointed out that the capture of state institutions by lobby-groups who seek to take control of their regulator is still permissible due to the fact that the Maltese Government has so far refrained from acting on OECD proposals relative to revolving-door recruitment.

The Planning Authority has been hijacked by the lobby group which it ought to be regulating. Consequently, instead of regulating the development of land use planning it has ended up seeking to justify development rather than ensuring that it is properly regulated.

One aspect of the proposed land use planning reform is the introduction of more discretion as an integral part of the planning process. The legislator is well aware than in the local context the increase of discretion adds to both the probability as well as the possibility of abuse.

The debate should be channeled in a totally different direction. It should be directed towards a reform which enhances the rights of our local residential communities that have been ignored for far too long in the land use planning debate.

Over the years, in these columns I have written time and time again on the issues which require the legislator’s immediate attention. Legislation that ensures community rights precedence over individual property rights, in matters of land use planning and environment protection, would be a strong foundation on which to build a solid rule-based regulatory alternative to the current state of affairs. This would potentially address both over-development as well as over-tourism and give back to the community overall responsibility and control.

The community should be the focal point of land use planning. Planning is for people, for our communities.  Where does the community and its rights feature in today’s land use planning?

A case in point is the complete absence in local land use planning of rules and policies which tackle climate change issues. As a result, we are ending up with the mushrooming of supermarkets which together with the generation of considerable traffic is killing-off small commercial outlets in our localities and consequently impacting the functioning of our local communities through the disintegration of a social fabric woven slowly over the years. This impact is in addition to the further loss of agricultural land and additional encroachments into an ever-decreasing ODZ.

In these columns, for example, I have already written on the need to examine alternatives (An alternative to supermarkets? TMIS: 10 December 2023) through an implementation of the 15-minute city concept, developed by the advisor to the Paris Mayor, Carlos Moreno, and applied in Paris and elsewhere. There are various ways to go about it, if the political will to address our land use planning ills can be found.

Two years ago, it was a pleasant break from the planning atrocities to which we have become accustomed, to read about the regional development strategy for Gozo which was then published. In that document the basic characteristics of Gozo were identified and made use of to try and mold a blueprint for the future of the island.

I had then stated that the basic philosophy of the Gozo strategy is encapsulated in the term “an island of villages”.  The Gozo strategy makes use of the smallness of the individual village in contrast to the relatively larger urban areas. The term conveys a sense of calmness resulting from being one with nature, which is easily accessible in the village. Fields surrounding the villages are a direct link to nature, radiating vitality. Most importantly, in the village, nature is respected. Nature provides us with food and basic ecological services which the village and the villagers appreciate due to their continuous direct link. Nature is our constant partner which, if we handle with care, will never let us down. (The island of villages is under threat. TMIS:24 September 2023)

The Gozo document was one which offered some hope, that somewhere, someone, was thinking outside the box. The ideas circulated then were positive, in stark contrast to current land use policy and practice. That is what we require out of land use planning reform at this point in time.  Otherwise, we would be much better off without the Planning Authority.

Carmel Cacopardo is the Greens’ Deputy Chairperson

published in The Malta Independent on Sunday: 10 August 2025