Government to prioritise agritourism projects, launches MEPA consultation process

Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Michael Farrugia today launched a three-week consultation process 'Semma Lehnek' which is intended to improve and simplify the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) processes.

While noting that not all complaints on MEPA are correct, Farrugia said: "We want to involve the public in the development of planning policies."

Farrugia invited the public to send its complaints, suggestions and ideas on MEPA by email on [email protected].

He said his staff would be collecting and analysing the comments received and passing them on to the authority's relevant departments who would than identify the cause of the problems and suggest solutions.

The consultation process, between 6 and 27 May, is part of the government's plan to divide MEPA into two, with the environmental wing merging with the Malta Resources Authority and the planning section remaining under the Parliamentary Secretary's remit.

Noting a few examples of MEPA shortcomings, the Parliamentary Secretary mentioned the tariffs which have already been reduced, lack of enforcement of health and safety regulations and discrepancies in MEPA decisions.

 "Recently I met somebody who had submitted what I consider to be a very interesting project, which was rejected because part of its footprint encroach the Outside Development Zone," Farrugia said.

He stressed that such projects should not be excluded a priori, arguing that the authority should be more flexible and discuss similar projects in detail to find reasonable solutions.

Asked whether the government's policy would be to take into consideration all proposed projects, including ODZs, Farrugia said: "As far as possible no, however such projects as agritourism can only be developed in ODZs."

Farrugia added that agritourism projects are generating a lot of interest, however these projects would only be taken into consideration once the policy is clear.

He added that these projects were among government's priorities, and he had already instructed the MEPA chairman to address these policy lacunas.

Quizzed whether the illegal Armier boathouses fall within government's priorities, Farrugia said that he would be holding a meeting with the Armier Developments Ltd in May to "resolve the problem once and for all."

Days before the 9 March election, Labour leader Joseph Muscat reached an agreement with the lobby representing the owners of illegal boathouses at Armier Bay, in a flipside of the 2008 electoral agreement last reached with Lawrence Gonzi.

Labour "reconfirmed" an agreement originally reached in 2002 with Labour MP Joe Mizzi, with Armier Developments Ltd.

The original agreement, which was championed by the previous  Nationalist administrations, would have meant handing over 230 tumuli of public land in Armier to Armier Developments Ltd.

The land was to be leased for 65 years against the payment of Lm157,000 a year. This would amount to just Lm100 a year for each boathouse owner, the boathouse owners' newsletter claimed.  The agreement also included a provision for the building of 500 new units "reserved for persons who are not presently occupying any boathouse in the area."