PD and AD take government to task over unbridled construction

Both Alternattiva Demokratika and Partit Demokratiku released separate statements on Saturday morning urging the government to restrain planning permits and subsequent developments.

PD said that "Malta’s spiralling economic growth has degraded our environment, and will continue to do so unless effectively controlled."

On the other hand, AD made reference to the 'imported' Turkish construction workers, for whom the government said earlier this week that minimum employment conditions would be ascertained.

"This is not enough. It is also clear that advances in education has led to a drastic reduction of unskilled or semi-skilled workers in the construction industry. Government should take this opportunity to cut the construction industry down to size through policies restraining the excesses of this industry and reduce the economic dependence of the country on it," AD said.

Earlier in the week, the Malta Developers Association said that Malta had failed when it comes to forward development planning in its Annual General Meeting, conceding that development planning since independence had been piecemeal in nature.

"Partit Demokratiku insists that a National Architectural Policy (National Development Masterplan) is taken in hand without any further delay so that a national consensus on the use of land and sea is laid out," the party said.PD is of the opinion that the development zone should be extended only in exceptional cases and only if the National Architectural Policy approves such a direction.

“It is a fact that the Planning Authority is politically captured and our urban and rural areas have been ravished by this government, who made capital of the 2006 rationalization plans, even though Joseph Muscat had criticised it when he was in opposition,” PD said.

AD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo accused the db Group, tasked with developing the St George's Bay project, of "minimizing the cost of construction o further increase its profits to the maximum possible," after it had acquired public land from government for a pittance.