Labour MP objected to cemetery ban

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) has ruled out any revisions to current policies to allow new cemeteries, and made it clear that the authority will decide on any pending application on the basis of the new policy it will be issuing.

The proposed policy is currently in public consultation phase.

Architect Charles Buhagiar submitted his objection to the new policy in December, on behalf of his client Piju Camilleri – a former aide of the notorious Labour minister Lorry Sant. Camilleri had already presented an application for the development of a brand new cemetery in Tal-Irmiedi, between Attard and Rabat.

Camilleri’s plans were for 1,000 graves. Although no prices were ever established, a recent government offer for plots in the public cemetery were being sold at €5,000 – although according to a parliamentary question in 2011, the actual cost of grave €8,000.

While the new MEPA policy foresees the extension of existing cemeteries and the reactivation of disused cemeteries, it bans the development of new ones like the one proposed by Camilleri.

Objections

In his submission to MEPA, Buhagiar referred to the lack of adequate burial facilities in the Attard and Rabat area, substantiated by 697 requests made by people residing in Rabat and 173 requests made by people residing in Attard for new graves.   “The objectives are unfair on the residents of the towns and villages whose cemeteries have no room for expansion,” Buhagiar wrote.

He also referred to MEPA’s decisions to grant a permit for new cemeteries in Pembroke and Nadur.

According to Buhagiar, the development fits in the area designated as a strategic open gap between Rabat and Attard. He said that the policy was also against the government’s stated objective that what could be provided by the private sector should not be provided by the government; and that the restriction which does not allow the construction of new cemeteries goes against the EU’s free competition directive.

Buhagiar also insisted that applications submitted prior to the coming into force of this new policy, should be considered on those planning policies at the time of submission or – in the absence of such policies – on their own merits.

MEPA reply

But in its reply, MEPA made it clear that applications have to be determined according to the policies in place when a decision is taken.

While Piju Camilleri is set to lose from this new policy, he stands to gain from other policies currently being drafted by MEPA. For example, it is set to remove a condition that would ban the construction of penthouses on land Camilleri’s company owns in Hal-Ghaxaq. The land was controversially included in development boundaries by the Nationalist government in 2006, on condition that no penthouses or washrooms be allowed on the roofs of the new residences.

Camilleri also applied to relocate an Msida petrol station on Valley Road, to an outside development zone in St Paul’s Bay, over 2,736 square metres of pristine land along Triq is-Salini. MEPA is currently drafting a new policy regulating the development of petrol stations in ODZ areas.