Local Plans | MEPA cites 'data protection' to protect the speculator

The names of persons recommending specific changes to the local plans will no longer published, as used to happen in previous public consultations undertaken by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA).

MEPA is obliged by law to take into account all submissions in the various phases of consultation and give a reply to each request or comment.

MEPA is also obliged by law to publish the gist of every request and comment and its response.

But MEPA is now citing "data protection" regulations to protect the anonymity of persons making submissions during the current consultation on the new local plans.

The reference number given to each submission will be published but not the name and surname of the person making the comment or submission.

This decision was communicated in a PowerPoint presentation, during which MEPA explained the process for a number of consultation meetings held in recent days.

The presentation states that it is important that any person making a submission keep note of his or her reference number.

Previously, for local plans and others subject to public consultation, the names of companies and citizens submitting proposals were published alongside MEPA's response to each submission.

These included the names of architects and developers who had proposed changes and had a vested interest in developing particular parcels of land.

The publication of these names enabled newspapers like MaltaToday to establish a link between the final changes and the influence of vested interests in the planning process.

In the past, MaltaToday referred to submissions made by construction magnates like Nazzareno Vassallo, who unsuccessfully tried to incorporate a 20-storey business centre instead of the Lowenbrau factory in a local plan revision covering the Marsa Sports Ground area. Subsequently, a few weeks before the general election, Vassallo was granted a permit for a supermarket on the same site.

Recently MaltaToday also referred to the submissions made by the Gozo Tourism Association and Karkanja Developments Limited with regards to the policy increasing the height of hotels in Gozo.

The present government acceded to demands made by these bodies by extending the new height adjustment regulation to the entirety of Gozo.

The MEPA website still includes the names of citizens and companies who made submissions during the local plan process leading to the approval of the 2006 local plans and related plans like the Planning Policy for Ta' Masrija in Mellieha, the Ta' Qali Action Plan and local plan revisions related to the Marsa Sports Ground.

Structure plan to be revised

The public was also informed that a Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) would replace the Structure Plan approved in 1992. All development permits currently issued by MEPA must be in conformity with the Structure Plan.

The three local plans on which MEPA is currently consulting the public will be based on the revised plan.

According to MEPA, the draft SPED will also be issued for public consultation in the coming months.

Currently the Structure Plan and seven approved local plans regulate development in Malta. The last five local plans were approved in 2006.

But the government is now proposing that the local plans be reduced to three: one for the urban areas of Malta, one for the rural areas of Malta and a third for Gozo.

The aim is that through these changes, there will be more consistency and a simplification of policies between the local plans.

The previous government already issued the strategic objectives of the SPED for public consultation.

One of the proposals made in the document is a revision of a policy enacted in 2005, which allows penthouses on third floors.

The draft document concluded that this policy has reduced the potential for renewable energy infrastructure on adjoining properties, as well as rainwater harvesting, thus contributing to flooding.