‘Loophole’ may permit government to defy new spatial strategy

A National Spatial Policy aimed at guiding development away from environmentally-sensitive areas, could come with a generic loophole enabling government to override it when pushing forward projects deemed to be of “national importance” and whose benefits outweigh non-compliance with the new strategy.

This emerges from a scoping report setting the parameters for a forthcoming Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) on the environmental impacts of Malta’s new National Spatial Strategy (NSS).

SEAs are obligatory for any government plan or policy which impacts on the environment.

The National Spatial Strategy (NSS) will be setting the “spatial framework” by adopting “a sequential approach”, a principle already enshrined in the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED), to direct development away from rural areas and so-called outside-development-zones (ODZ), to already disturbed sites within the development zone.

But the scoping report for the forthcoming SEA study, highlights one particular exception in the new spatial strategy which states that “in the case of projects of national importance, the government may –  after balancing economic, social and environmental priorities including non-compliance with specific provisions of this plan – conclude that the positive aspects of these projects outweigh the negatives and decide in their favour.

When such cases present themselves, “the government will provide a reasoning detailing the issues it has taken into account and how it arrived at its final conclusion.”

In its reaction to the scoping report, the Environment and Resources Authority is insisting that the SEA study should “examine the implications of this statement” particularly “in respect of the environmental obligations and requirements which, irrespective of the statement, would still need to be adhered to.”

ERA is also insisting that the new policy is guided by the principle that urban development is directed towards committed development zones, to avoid additional take-up of rural land and that ODZ development is an exception, “limited to genuine, minimalistic agricultural development which necessitates a rural location.”

The new National Spatial Strategy will be part of the SPED review, which had replaced the Structure Plan as Malta’s overriding planning policy in 2015.

The review will be based on studies analysing Malta’s spatial strategy, based on key performance indicators and data sourced from entities like the National Statistics Office and the Central Bank, among others.

The studies will also evaluate the spatial implications of the government’s current economic, social and environmental policies.

The NSS will identify past and present development trends, to project Malta’s future spatial needs, as well as determine how the country’s sustainability framework can ensure that development today does not hinder the lives of future generations.

In this way the country will be in a position to plan for the required economic growth while safeguarding the environment.