The government is to scrap regional local plans, and the environmentalists who voted for the government are upset.
Michael Farrugia
One wonders just how blind you had to be not to see all of this coming. Tulip fever, the madness of crowds, seeing only what you want to see – I really don’t know.
These are adults we’re talking about. They must have been truly carried away not to perceive the waves of falsehood coming off Joseph Muscat and those around him.
But what’s done is done, so we’ll just concentrate on the consequences of monumentally bad decisions.
Parliamentary secretary Michael Farrugia, a doctor who has been put in charge of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, has said that the government will scrap the seven local plans which shape environmental and planning decisions.
It will replace them with “three generic plans”. These generic plans will not consider the regional differences which have so far made for planning policy. They will instead be “streamlined according to spatial designations”.
These “spatial designations” are very simple indeed – because this, after all, is clearly a government that can’t be doing with complicated notions and to which even a code of ethics for the cabinet is a briksa that’s too thick to read and must be simplified and thinned down.
The three “spatial designations” are 1. Malta’s development areas, 2. Malta’s ODZ areas, and 3. Gozo/Comino.
So…no scope for tripping over yourself, then.
“This defeats the purpose of local plans, which are intended to tackle the development issues of each area through specific policies necessarily applicable to other areas,” the environmental groups said.
They suggested that the changes might be due to pressure brought by developers who don’t like dealing with different requirements across seven local plans.
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What’s Eman Pulis doing at thar press conference?
LoveSexy. Hudu go fikom.
In one fell swoop, Farrugia reduces bureaucracy by 25%, placates several of Labour’s financiers, and enrages environmentalist who are no longer useful because they’ve already voted anyway.
Now I’d like to know, how much is Yana Mintoff’s property worth? At her age, she might consider using it to alleviate the poverty her father helped perpetuate.
At this stage, the Gharix’s exactly that, a hut worth zilch.
It’s within the 100 meter strictly no go radius surrounded by another 100 meter radius delineating restricted access.
Even the strays at Fort Delimara will have to be relocated.
“Environmentalists” are not enraged but embarrassed and disconcerted. They are all now insisting that they did not support josephmuscat.com.
Why aren’t they bringing out their megaphones, organizing protest marches and kissing the leader of the opposition for the cameras?
Hudu go fikom, Astrid & Co.
The trouble is that it will be the most of us that will “niehdu go fina” .
After all, Martin Scicluna, who presented himself as a harmless individual saw Joseph Muscat’s movement as a cause worth voting for. His words carried weight and quite a few believed him.
Now, with the unfolding scenario, which is very different from that which Muscat presented, he still says that he’s not sorry about what he advocated during the electoral campaign.
Never was Muscat up to the stature of Dr. Lawrence Gonzi. Malta was doing very well when other countries, much bigger than us, had succumbed to the crisis that hit the world then.
Yet, some people were blinded by Muscat’s false face and falser voice, and voted for change. We are seeing the change unfolding before our eyes, and it’s not pretty at all.
The contractors must have forked out millions of Euros during the election campaign., and not a few thousands.
These NGOs have no credibility at all – the writing was on the wall, and yet, for personal reasons they encouraged people to vote MLP. For me personally, they are finished. I used to contribute (small amount) to one of them. I refrain form doing so in the future.
And one big question is: what has happened to the UCA areas? That is, urban conservation areas which comprise the village cores.
Is this government going to destroy the only areas which are, to some extent, relatively intact??? Lets hope for the best.
I dread to think what might happen once these town houses, houses of character and other traditional architecture is laid on a silver plate for the hungry illiterate developer to ruin at his own will.
There was talk of urban regeneration reverting to extensive restoration and concentrating on fiscal incentives.
No different to what the nationalist administration contemplated and presented in subsequent budgets, until Astrid decided Labour can be up to it as well, so there.
And that was over two years ago, before Labour went down the developers’ garden path.
She just had to play skittles with policy and white papers, no doubt thrilled that Muscat with a goatee gave her a little peck on St.John’s parvis, look where she is now.
The only thing which can save us is the banks maintaining their credit restricted. It’s not as if these will go after Joseph’s new deal.
Oh dear. I came across it. Pages 53 and 55 of The Executive Business journal, issue 51.
An article by Michael Falzon president of the Malta Developers Association.
The demolition of units that are not worth preserving – mostly those without damp proofing and with bad planning that defies improvement – should be allowed without any hassles. Conservation efforts should be directed at retaining existing facades and where this is not practical the re-utilization of the old masonry in the ‘new’ facades should be acceptable.
What is an acceptable layout? Who is going to decide on this?
Are we to move construction jiggers and trucks and all else to the village cores to satisfy some developers who purchased property there? Retaining facades not practical. In what sense? That it is too costly for the developer to retain? Or not accessible?
The reform in MEPA policies announced by the new administration should tackle these issues without delay.
Yes…this is it. I was wondering why they were so hush-hush about all this.
The new administration – the desecration of our old village cores and the rest of our architectural heritage. It wasn’t enough that the developers ruined Malta’s landscape with concrete pigeon holes everywhere.
Old properties can be done up. It just takes sensitive interventions carried out by specialized people and architects specialized in conservation/restoration, rather than some “know it all” architects who think that every stone is the same as any other.
Basically Labour’s just removed the design freeze, opening up all kinds of contradictory policies within urban areas.
We’ve been unloaded with 90’s talk. This for an industry which has amply demonstrated it cannot follow market trends, let alone anticipate and innovate the times.
Consultation will take all of next week. The conclusions reached depending on how strong a lobby one is. Just as a comparison, rationalisation schemes took over six years, conditions draconian, any abuse was identified and everyone took their time to convey their concerns.
Why, Astrid built her lobby on those schemes.
The ones in Mellieha and Xemxija became a ‘national scandal’ and were somewhat attenuated.
If those reading this still haven’t understood, it means Sliema will be subjected to a perpetual increase in building heights, anyone with open views will find their investment at risk, anyone with a garden can find themselves overlooked by service shafts and so on.
Absolutely no one is safe, spatial designations being such a vague term that it can mean anything. It means volume will not stop expanding once it started.
Genius Loci, community, air quality, open space, contouring, and a little known EU born right, that to one’s views, down the drain.
Whatever a contractor thinks should happen in a neighbourhood cannot be put in doubt. This government has taken it on themself to consider developer’s mistakes as someone else’s fault.
Any argument put forward by NGO’s, architects and anyone with an ounce of common sense will be dismissed as ‘jaqbzu ghal gremxul’.
And if anyone says they didn’t notice, I’m afraid they have no place putting their two cent’s worth in public dialogue.
The only way this can be gotten rid of is if public outcry manages to make the media. We were all told Lawrence Gonzi was arrogant, that he had to ‘listen’, to what, this faceless greed?
See ‘greedy developers’ got themselves in power now. To think GonziPN wasn’t supposedly doing enough. Tragic.
This is a step back for planning and the environment .
And yet I am not disappointed.
When I remember the bitching, the attacks, the slinging of mud (it happened again just a few days ago on Villa Mekrech), the misinformation, the hidden agendas, the unjustified criticism and the endless cucati that emanated from Astrid Vella, I must say, I am not disappointed.
I never thought I would use the expression but in this case I really, really must – hudu go fikom, FAA.
The problem is that is that we all will be suffering the consequences, along with future generations.
As a Maltese who does not live in Malta, I have been thinking of investing in property there, that is renovating an old town house or similar – but definitely no new construction. This new “development” made me change my mind.
Poor Malta, already over-constructed, its quaint houses of character replaced by box-like flats…the island has been losing its beauty for years. Environmentalists who supported Moviment Labour owe us an apology.
Just a few days ago, MEPA launched public consultation process for the revision of the local plans. Now all of a sudden we are told the local plans will be no more. What is it going to be revised local plans or bahh??
Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?
To add insult to injury, they made it seem that the consultation process under Labour will be much better and more transparent than that carried out in 2006 and before under the Nationalists.
Without consultation, the Parliamentary Secretary announces a radical change in the planning system – the removal of local plans. The decision also renders the Labour’s new style of consultation a farce. What is MEPA going to consult on if government decided at one fell swoop to remove all existing local plans?
The rowdmepp never included a timeframe for the ‘radical reform’ envisaged for MEPA.
No one whimpered when they said the ‘environmental’ arm was to be divorced from ‘planning’. Whatever those mean to them.
It’s not as if they’ve ever mentioned a coordinated infrastructure either, resorting to vague promises of ‘development opportunities’, car parks, everywhere.
Traffic management, planning and any resulting economic progress is a science, not electoral propaganda. It will be his greatest failure. The fact he relies on individuals whose only knowhow is property speculation will see to that.
When Pullicino piloted the anti-fragmentation scheme it remained on the shelf, not one of our so-called ‘entrepreneurs’ saw a strategic long term potential. Muscat’s idea then, is to sate this short-term convolution leading to a snatch and grab business plan. Oh, the corrupt practices to save one’s company.
Infrastructure as a means to reduce mass and increase physical efficiency is an unknown concept. FAR failed, concrete still a black art.
Just to clarify, the Shard, London’s tallest building, sits astride a major rail junction and doesn’t even have a single parking space attached. That’s how far back in time we are.
It’s access that matters, go tell that to your typical switchers and Labour core. Unbearable given the personal misgivings. Or better, how will Audrey Harrison, who must surely have an idea, match her vote with what has to be done?
How contradictory is it to have a Labour government enslaved in the cheapest of materialistic fundamentals as economic criteria to achieve any public goal? It won’t work.
The banks have been warned, the IMF won’t tolerate any lending directed at Muscat’s primitive idea of kickstarting an economy.
Hot air.
“Local Plans provide for the way we make use of our land.”
This is not some cheap rhetoric of past nationalist administrations. This statement is in an advert that MEPA has put out in the media. The consultation logo says: REVISION OF LOCAL PLANS.
Yet Michael Farrugia said that government will do away with local plans.
Local plans or no local plans? That is the question.