Six NGOs – Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, The Gaia Foundation, Malta Organic Agriculture Movement, Ramblers’ Association and the Save Wied Granaw Action Group – present their proposals ahead of tomorrow’s MEPA reform
In January 2008 Government had published a bill of amendments to the Development Planning Act. These amendments were a step in the right direction; however, we believe that various additional legislative amendments need to be made so as to resolve the present shortcomings in development planning.
• The key planning policies governing development in protected zones and buildings should be given the force of law to make sure that permits cannot be granted in blatant contravention of such policies.
• MEPA should start pre-screening applications, particularly those for development outside the development zone (ODZ) and in urban conservation areas. Applications which are found to be ineligible at the pre-screening stage would not be considered any further.
• The law currently allows developers to seek reconsideration of an application if this gets refused. This is in addition to the right to appeal. The right to a reconsideration should be removed.
• Changes should be made to the Development Planning Act and Environment Protection Act so as to assign a meaningful decision-making role to officials of the Environment Directorate. Currently, the Environment Directorate (ED) is limited to a consultative role on development applications and appeals.
• To enhance transparency and accountability, an audit management unit is needed within MEPA. This unit would be responsible for vetting the various development planning processes and decisions taken.
• The current MEPA Audit Officer, recently attached to the Office of the Ombudsman, should in turn be ascribed the role of external auditor responsible for quality assurance.
• MEPA needs to start using the legislative powers it already has at its disposal. The law does however need to be changed so as to permit more effective action against illegal developments. MEPA should no longer be allowed to retrospectively approve illegal ODZ developments and in other protected areas.
• The fines contemplated by law for illegal development should be substantially increased. In 2001 the law was amended to permit the imposition of a daily fine against illegal developers who fail to comply with enforcement notices. However, this provision cannot be used yet because the Government never brought it into force.
• Changes to the law are also critically needed to eliminate the possibility of conflicts of interest. Members of the Development Control Commission (DCC) and the Planning Appeals Board (PAB) should be barred from carrying out development-related work in private practice. Members of the MEPA Board should also be barred from undertaking any work which would conflict with their role as board members. Board members should be held personally liable if found to have abused their powers.
• Written rules of procedure be established for the operations of the Planning Appeals Boards, which currently function in a highly legalistic way and with sparse written rules of procedure in place. In consequence, appeals take years to be concluded, and hearings are deferred repeatedly. The law should also set out the fundamental criteria which the PABs must use to decide on an appeal.
• Members of the DCC and PAB should be appointed on a full-time basis to expedite their work. There should be greater diversity of backgrounds and more civil society representatives on MEPA Boards.
• MEPA’s Environment Directorate should be substantially strengthened to adequately carry out its monitoring and enforcement functions. Also, the Malta Resources Authority should be incorporated within the Environment Directorate to avoid overlaps and fragmentation.
• Where environmental impact assessments are necessary, these should be commissioned by MEPA rather than by the applicants themselves (always at the applicants’ expense). This would eliminate a potential conflict of interest on the part of the assessors.
• The current development application process is not giving due weight to the impact of proposed developments on the public’s quality of life, particularly the impact on people’s physical and mental well-being. Development applications are not consistently assessed to check whether they conform to existing sanitary laws while third party rights are completely overlooked. Likewise, development applications are not being assessed on the basis of whether they comply with energy efficiency legislation or with water conservation requirements.
• To render enforcement a more manageable task we propose that district management teams be set up to monitor specific green areas and urban conservation areas in particular zones of Malta. These teams would regularly monitor the areas under their responsibility to spot any illegal development as soon as it starts and initiate immediate remedial action to nip such illegalities in the bud.
• Finally, MEPA’s customer service facilities should be improved, and a Planning Aide appointed to assist NGOs.
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