It’s not all bad news on the development front, James Debono discovers when analysing past surveys on public attitudes to environmental concerns
Surveys show that in the past decade, the Maltese have become more intolerant of the urban spree which has ruined tracts of countryside and altered the townscape. Politicians, it seems, can only ignore this trend at their peril.
Preliminary results from a Public Attitude Survey, conducted by the Malta Environment & Planning Authority (MEPA) among 1064 respondents and published last November, showed that 84% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Malta is “too built up”.
This represents a 10% increase since 1999, when 74% of respondents answered the same way in a similar survey.
Of the people interviewed in the MEPA survey, 61% agreed or strongly agreed that there should be penalties on vacant properties to encourage their use. A further 51% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that new buildings should not be higher than existing ones.
This represents a considerable change from public attitudes registered in the 1999 survey.
On that occasion, 59% agreed that new buildings should be higher than existing ones. In 1999 disagreement was highest in the North Harbour Area where high rise development was already taking place.
Interestingly, 63% of respondents believe that the provision of public recreational space in the countryside is low. When asked whether the environment is equally, more or less important than the economy, 69% of the respondents stated that the environment is equally important as the economy, and 23% stated that the environment is more important than the economy. In 1999 only 15% stated that the environment is more important than the economy.
Public attitudes in 1999 The 1999 survey, conducted well before the environmental issues became fashionable, already showed that 72% disagreed with the statement: “some building permits should be granted outside development schemes”.
Only 17% agreed with such permits and 50% expressed strong disagreement. The level of disagreement with ODZ development was lowest in Gozo where only 58% disagreed with this kind of development.
In 1999 – well before the extension of building boundaries in 2006 – 51% disagreed that “more land should be zoned for development”, while only 40% agreed. Disagreement was lowest in Gozo with only 38%, and highest in the North Harbour region (which includes major towns like Sliema and B’Kara) where 56% disagreed. Just ove rhalf (52%) also disagreed with the statement that æall unbuilt land within development boundaries should be build up.”
Only 38% of citizens in the highly urbanized north harbour area agreed. Moreover, 30% agreed with the statement that there should be less regulation on the land use of private property. But in Gozo the situation was reversed with 44% wanting less regulation.
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