1992 commitment to ‘nationalise’ coastline absent from new plans

A set of vague policy objectives known as the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) will do away with the existing policy of the 1992 Structure Plan calling for full public ownership of the coastline.

Structure Plan policy CZM 3 - which may well go down in history as the most left-wing policies ever enacted in Malta - unambiguously states that “all the coastline will be brought into public ownership within a specified period”.

The policy was never implemented, but it was strategically invoked by case officers when faced by applications which denied public access to the coast.

The policy also states that access around the coastline immediately adjacent to the sea or at the top of cliffs and bays, harbours, and creeks “will be secured”.

To achieve this aim the structure plan calls on the government to take the coastline into public ownership.

The same policy also calls for government acquisition “of illegal developments and encroachments”.

Moreover policy REC 12 calls for the demolition of all illegal stone built structures on the Maltese coast.

The Structure Plan warned that if these structures “are allowed to remain, evicted shanty users (in other localities) would ask why they are being proceeded against and not the others, and most importantly it would be seen as another case of benefit accruing to those who break the law at the expense of those who do not, and a signal that it is worth attempting further illegal development because of the government’s reluctance to enforce the law.”

Although approved by parliament these policies were never introduced, to the extent that the privatisation of the coastline through legal and illegal developments continued in subsequent years. 

But these policies were often invoked against further permits for developments encroaching on the foreshore. 

For example the Environment Protection Directorate recently invoked CZM 2 to call for the inclusion of adequate pedestrian access along the seaward edge of a proposed lido on reclaimed land in Gzira.

These policies also stood as a stumbling block against the sanctioning of any illegal coastal development, such as the shantytown in Armier and applications to sanction kiosks.

A probe by MaltaToday just days ago revealed that 24 commercial establishments located on scheduled areas of the coastline are facing enforcement notices.

These policies seem to have been sidelined: for instance, one of the objectives of the final SPED document issued for public consultation states that recreational facilities should not “restrict or interfere with physical or visual access of the coast”, but makes no direct reference to reclaiming public ownership of the coastline or the removal of existing illegalities. 

Moreover as amended by the current administration the document also includes new commitments in favour of land reclamation and the development of a cruise terminal and yacht marina in Gozo.

The Environment and Development Planning Act states that the Strategic Plan should set out policies and include an explanatory memorandum giving a reasoned justification for each of the policies and proposals contained in the plans.

The document issued for public consultation does not include the required policies, let alone any reasoned justification for them. It only contains a list of objectives, which are very similar to the objectives published in 2012 by the previous administration in preparation for the Strategic Plan.

The 2012 document clearly stated that the objectives were only intended to “guide the policy formulation stage of the drawing up of a new SPED”.

Environmental NGO Din l-Art Helwa had objected to this, arguing that it is unacceptable for the same objectives to now be presented by the government as the full Strategic Plan.