We are still hopeful that the Prime Minister will transform the Malta Environment & Planning Authority into what it ought to be: a cradle of sustainable development. We are still hopeful that the Prime Minister will conduct the revolution that is thoroughly needed at Mepa. Dr Gonzi must put Mepa on top of his agenda and prove to us that he meant it when he said he would take this authority under his wing in order to make the reforms that are so thoroughly needed.
We heard last week how the victims of the Naxxar fireworks explosion are still waiting for Mepa to issue the same permit that it issued before the house was demolished. But Mepa does not see any urgency in the matter and it is treating this application as a normal one taking its usual course. It is a shame that in this day and age, Mepa still needs a Big Brother to instruct it that such and similar applications must be treated with urgency and take precedence over others.
Why the Prime Minister has to enter into the nitty-gritty of this I do not know, but the people who are helpless are being left with no alternative but to resort to the media and to the Prime Minister. As the minister responsible for Mepa, he is expected to intervene and instruct the people at Mepa that the applications of the victims of the fireworks tragedy in Naxxar are to be channeled through the fastest track that there is available. This is case number 1.
Case number 2 concerns a plea from the residents of Iklin, in an area which is considered as a bungalow area. Notwithstanding that, a permit was issued for a villa as well as a bungalow, and Mepa is being very lenient with the developer. The neighbours have been complaining for ages, as the area is now open for the development of detached maisonettes; but notwithstanding that the enforcement officer knows what is happening, no action has been taken to stop this atrocity.
These are the cases which make John Citizen feel helpless in front of the weak enforcement mechanism provided by Mepa and how the enforcement officers tend not to take enforcement very seriously; or rather, they do not have the tools to take enforcement seriously.
The developer in Iklin is carrying on with the rape of the area and everybody is helpless. It is as though there are developers and there developers in this country. Mepa board members know what is happening, Mepa enforcement officers also, yet they allow the developer to continue to spit in their faces.
It is a shame how this is allowed to happen and it is a shame how we have no option but to drag the Prime Minister into the picture because those at Mepa, who are paid from our taxes (and believe me they are paid handsomely) to ensure that planning laws are respected, are not doing their job. I feel sorry in a way for the Prime Minister who, despite his extensive agenda, he still has to take time to foresee and control what others should be doing in his stead because that is what they are allowed to do.
I am sorry to say but even the local council of Iklin is being silent on the matter and I cannot, on the other hand, not praise the stand taken by Lija local council. Thanks to this council we have learnt that there is a loophole in Mepa’s policies so that the definition of village core can be interpreted differently. Oh, how I wish that the Lija mayor was in Zebbug as I am sure that he would not have allowed the monstrosity of development that is taking place in Freedom Avenue, a stone’s throw away from the village core.
Take the shop in Republic Street, Valletta, where an enforcement notice was issued because its façade is not according to the permit. I am quoting this case because it was on a local English newspaper: the façade is still the same, the owner is still operating the business and life continues for these people as if nothing has happened, implying that the system encourages them to flout the law because there is no deterrent.
I cannot understand how Mepa works and the more I try the more my mind boggles: you can never know where you stand with Mepa. The policies are drawn up in such a way that the writing leaves a lot of room for interpretation, so that everybody is right at Mepa and it takes somebody with the guts of the mayor of Lija to stop the game that Mepa very often likes to play: that of hiding behind the hybrid wording of its policies to justify its action or inaction.
Nor can I understand how in some applications Mepa demands proof of title of property, and in others not. I cannot understand how Mepa in some cases applies the rule that no new development can be done on a site covered by illegal development, and in other cases not. I cannot understand how the people at Mepa can get away with murder and if caught out doing something, like the cases of issuing permits with additional floors by mistake, all one has to do is resign and let bygones be bygones.
There are people at Mepa who were suspended from work and than, surprise surprise, reinstated and given the same kind of job. Not that they repent what they might have done; on the contrary they continue with the same line of behaviour and attitude as before, always reluctant to stop illegal developments.
Enforcement is a big headache to the Prime Minister and unless the architects become jointly and severally liable with the developer for illegal development, it is useless for the Prime Minister to conduct consultation meetings. Architects must become liable together with their clients for infringing Mepa permits, for building without a Mepa permit and for submitting false plans to Mepa. Once the virus at Mepa is there to stay, the least we can do is stop nourishing this virus from outside, and this can only happen when architects become jointly and severally liable, along with the developers, for illegal developments.
It is true that architects argue that they are separate and distinct from their clients, and that they are not the ones who authorize such illegalities, but once they give their opinion and advice on illegal development, they are just as liable.
It is a shame how our architects are not able to produce plans that are compatible with the site and the area around the development. Take Xemxija” they were unable to build in such a way that the development blends with the environment. I so doing we have raped Xemxija, and as if that were not enough, we are now doing the same in the Tal-Fjuri area in Xemxija.
But can it be that our university is producing such poor architects that aesthetics seems to be an obsolete word and no longer in the vocabulary of the architecture course? Is is possible that we were not able to make Xemxija look like Capri as regards building development? Are we going to rape the other sites around the country as if what was done so far is not enough?
As far as I am aware there is a committee for aesthetics within Mepa but its role is just to slumber as they are not even able to come up with a colour scheme for our facades, let alone enforce aesthetics in the applications submitted to Mepa. The Arab countries, notwithstanding their laid-back culture, are more advanced than us. At least they have reached consensus that colour schemes must be preserved – in our case we have not reached that stage yet!
Viva chi regna!
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We are still hopeful that the Prime Minister will conduct the revolution that is thoroughly needed at Mepa. Dr Gonzi must put Mepa on top of his agenda and prove to us that he meant it when he said he would take this authority under his wing in order to make the reforms that are so thoroughly needed.