‘We intend to resist until the tide turns’ – NGOs on planning regime

The first week of May was a rollercoaster ride for Malta’s environmental NGOs.

Within a week, six different planning applications, which have been the focus of environmental campaigns over the years, reached a critical stage in their respective proceedings.

While activists could finally celebrate the court’s decision to uphold their arguments in the cases of Hili Ventures’ mega-project in Comino and the blatantly illegal gate blocking access to the coastline in Baħrija, four other decisions handed down in the same week served as a bitter reminder of the problems with Malta’s planning regime.

The Planning Authority approved a development for a 22-apartment block within Ġgantija’s buffer zone, as well as the (re)burial of ancient Roman catacombs underneath a seven-storey apartment block in Qawra.

Activists furiously called for the “immediate” resignation of the head of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage after the entity failed to prevent the demolition of Fort Chambray’s historic barracks.

In another case, the recommendation for approval of an illegally developed padel court complex in Manoel Island further added insult to injury.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Robert Abela formalised his administration’s stunning U-turn on Manoel Island, going from denying the possibility that the islet could be turned into a national park last year to signing an agreement granting Heritage Malta ownership of the site.

When questioned about the illegal padel complex, Abela was evasive, repeating the standard government line noting that the PA is supposed to be an “autonomous” authority.

Despite the mayhem caused by the PA’s approval of projects in areas that should not be accommodating them, veteran activist and head of the Ramblers’ Association of Malta, Ingram Bondin, remained undeterred.

“I take heart from the fact that we have found support from every sector of society, even from Labour ministers,” Bondin told The Shift.

“We intend to keep resisting until the tide turns and better people are at the helm. We do not work on a five-year horizon as politicians do. These people will eventually be gone, while our organisations will still be here: growing, strengthening, and fighting for a better environment,” he added.

The Ramblers’ Association forms part of a coalition of NGOs that have been working together to oppose all six projects.

Andre Callus, one of the most well-known members of Moviment Graffitti and a strident critic of the government’s pro-developer politics, agrees with Bondin’s assessment.

“Recent events relating to planning and development in Malta have brought to the fore the deep rot in this sector,” Callus said.

“All this happened in the space of just a few days, pointing to a system where the Planning Authority, and supposedly independent public bodies such as the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), and the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) are little more than puppets of higher powers and their business partners,” he added.

The increased coordination between environmental organisations is one thin silver lining arising from the government’s insistence on removing environmental safeguards through two highly contentious proposals, Bill 143 and Bill 144.

Both Bondin and Callus agreed that the government’s failure to ratify the Bills before Parliament was dissolved ahead of the general elections was a direct result of widespread public opposition.

Since last summer, the Ramblers’ Association, Moviment Graffitti, and dozens of other groups have been consistent in their opposition to the Bills, focusing their demands on four key changes they believe must be implemented to address some of the system’s most glaring issues.

Ahead of the ongoing general elections, 10 NGOs demanded that construction work on sites subject to an ongoing appeal be suspended and that the Planning Authority remove illegal developments instead of allowing them to continue operating undisturbed.

“The fact that such fundamental, common sense proposals were not met with immediate support from much of the political class only underscores that meaningful change will come only through the people’s sustained struggle for environmental justice and quality of life. And we will keep up that fight,” Callus promised.