Green NGOs hit out at MEPA’s lack of urban planning

Environment NGO Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar has expressed concern over the number of planning policy revisions that are being launched by MEPA in quick succession.

FAA said it was unacceptable that land reclamation projects were not being regulated by a national policy, nor by a marine local plan - "a ploy conceived in order to avoid the EU obligation to undertake a Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA)".

"Almost 10 years after joining the EU, it seems our main aim is still to shirk EU obligations. FAA asks whether MEPA intends carrying out an SEA to assess the cumulative impact of all the proposed new policies," it said.

All environment groups agree that such policies should have been launched after the conclusion of the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) which replaces the Structure Plan and establishes the guidelines for all subsidiary policies.

"Issuing the 'minor' policies before the masterplan will create conflicting policies and more loopholes and grey areas, besides the fact that such haste does not allow for in-depth studies and meaningful consultation, not even with professional bodies, let alone with the public."

FAA said that work carried out by MEPA officials on the SPED during the previous administration was scrapped because it did not meet Government's priorities: "This amounts to political interference in environmental policy. It means that studies on national sustainability, land use requirements and health issues that are not the real priorities of the SPED but political expediency."

FAA is particularly concerned by the tall buildings (FAR) policy, as a report just issued by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat along with UNESCO reveals that "knowledge related to Urban Design, City Planning and Social Issues is somewhat underdeveloped."  How can we commit our towns to high-rise buildings when international bodies are highlighting the lack of research in the life-cycle of buildings, questioning the genuine sustainability of high-rise, the suitability of materials to different climates, wind performance, fire safety and the social impact of high-rise especially among families, the old and disabled.

"EU policies puts obligation on MEPA to ensure that all new developments are energy efficient. Yet MEPA case officers and the DPA disregard enforcing a law which requires that ALL planning applications for dwellings be accompanied with an Energy Performance Certificate, as stipulated in the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations 2012, retroactive to developments dating to 2009. There are legislated penalties for these omissions."

Together with FAA, Friends of the Earth Malta, MOAM and the Ramblers Association criticised a series of environmental decisions taken.

Last year the EU Environment Office announced that during 2012, Malta had achieved conformity with EU standards of air quality, however during a meeting at Europa House in Valletta between local e-NGOs and the EU Environment Office, Friends of the Earth asked the EU delegates to the data and methods of data treatment provided by MEPA. Their reply was: "We cannot do that as data transmitted to Brussels is confidential. We assume governments inform their own people!"

Reacting to the thousands of enforcement notices gone missing, MOAM said the news "comes as no surprise".

"What made it worse was the fact the environmental NGOs have been complaining for years on end that the enforcement directorate was simply non-functional, or dysfunctional.  The cause of this could be various.  But the fact remains that the person/s responsible to ensure that these things do not happen, chose, for some unknown (but imaginable) reasons, to close an eye, if not complete blindness."

 The Noise Abatement Society of Malta (NASoM) said the management of unwanted noise was s still at the very bottom of the government's program, although it is a hazard to human health and the wellbeing.

The solution, in part, is available in the, "Noise Prevention & Control (framework) Regulations". These were published at the end of the previous legislature. Unfortunately neither the government nor the opposition seem to be too bothered to have these regulations enforced. 

"Nevertheless, without the government commitment and the drive of the stakeholders the framework would be another paper tiger."

Ramblers Association said the 31-policy document on ODZ did little to protect the environment.