Planning is for people: from Mosta via Iklin to Mqabba

I recall the first lectures on urban studies, when I was still a student: our lecturer, the late Perit André Zammit used to emphasise that “planning is for people”. 

The concerns and views of people are of paramount importance in determining all land use planning issues. There is a need for the participation of the public in decision-taking. The top-down nature of land use planning is of concern: most prefer an alternative scenario based on their continuous involvement in decisions concerning their surroundings and impacting their daily life. This, after all, is practical subsidiarity.

Some things never change. We are no different from others. All of us detest imposition and rebel when decisions are paternalistically imposed from the top-down.

Such was the case in Mosta earlier this week when in the space of 24 hours the Mosta Local Council made a colossal U-turn and revoked a unanimous decision of the Local Council to uproot existing trees in the Mosta square and replant them elsewhere. Had the Local Council been decent enough to consult with the local population in good time, it would have arrived at the correct decision much earlier. No need for prodding by Robert Abela!

Matters are moving in the same direction in Mqabba.

I have been alerted to a specific pending planning application in Mqabba (PA6976/21). This application seeks the relocation of a tarmac and concrete batching plant from Ħal-Far to an existing Mqabba quarry, close to the residential area. A report recommending the approval of the application has been drawn up by the Planning Authority case officer. In this report it is stated that no consultation reply was received from the Mqabba Local Council on this application. As is standard practice, this non-reply is considered as a no objection to the proposed development.

The manner in which planning applications are notified to the public is slightly odd.  Fixing a site notice on site may be reasonable when dealing with an urban property. However, in the case of a property which is some 500 metres away from the urban footprint, such site notices serve to notify no one, except maybe a stray dog or cat. Hence the Local Council, in such cases is the only entity actually notified of the development under consideration. In these circumstances the responsibility of the Local Council is enormous.

The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) in reports submitted to the Planning Authority has indicated that it has no objection to the proposed development. In so doing it has ignored the impacts resulting from emissions to air and odours as well as the impacts of dust dispersal from openly stored stone aggregate subject to wind action.

Apparently, ERA has learned nothing from the impacts of the Tal-Balal tarmac plant on the residential community of l-Iklin.

The question to which we seek an answer thus assumes greater significance: why did the Mqabba Local Council fail to reply to the Planning Authority consultation request? Why did it fail to engage with the Planning Authority and the developer on the application and its impact on the residents close by?

The site for the proposed development lies outside the development zone (ODZ). It may also be argued that ODZ is the appropriate place for such a development. This line of thought is not however necessarily correct. In fact, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage was a lone voice in the wilderness objecting to the said proposed development, emphasising the need to rehabilitate the existing quarry. This is a proposal worth considering notwithstanding that the Planning Authority has shot it down.

The Local Council of Mqabba has been absent from the debate on the proposed development for reasons which are, so far, unknown. I will not speculate as to the possible reasons for this, as it would be unfair on my part to do so. An explanation is however due to the residential community, less than 500 metres away from the proposed tarmac plant.

Local Councils are alerted regularly by the Planning Authority on applications submitted within their locality boundaries, for their consideration. This makes the non-engagement of the Mqabba Local Council even worse, as it was aware of the application submitted but ignored it.

The proposed development is now recommended for approval. However, the views of the residential community have not been factored in as the Mqabba local Council has been silent on the matter.

We have the tools to engage. Making our voice heard and communicating our concerns is the least we can do. When the Mqabba Local Council failed to make its voice heard on behalf of the residential community it represents it sent a clear message: it does not care.

Is this what the Mqabba Local Council has been elected for?

published in The Malta Independent on Sunday: 19 November 2023

Kunsill ta’ San Ġiljan u l-ħarsien tad-drittijiet fundamentali

Il-bieraħ f’San Ġiljan fejn ser nikkontesta l-elezzjoni tal-Kunsill Lokali indirizzajt konferenza stampa dwar il-ħidma fil-lokalità. Il-prijorità ta’ Alternattiva Demokratika hi dejjem il-ħarsien tan-nies u tal-kwalità tal-ħajja tagħhom.

Il-ħidma għal toroq u bankini aħjar trid tissokta mhux biss bi programm ta’ tiswija regolari imma billi jkun assigurat illi l-Kunsill Lokali ta’ San Ġiljan jaħdem id f’id ma’ Infrastructure Malta ħalli l-investiment ta’ €700 miljun li ser jagħmel il-Gvern fit-toroq tal-pajjiż ikollu effett posittiv fuq San Ġiljan ukoll.

Għandu jkun hemm investiment adegwat ukoll fil-bankini. Ħafna minnhom saru biex jaġevolaw il-karozzi fil-garaxxijiet bil-konsegwenza li diversi bankini spiċċaw tlajja u nżul kontinwi b’detriment għal min huwa vulnerabbli. Bl-istess mod, il-Kunsill Lokali għandu jara li l-bankini ikunu ħielsa minn ostakli li ħafna drabi iġiegħlu lir-residenti, partikolarment dawk l-iktar vulnerabbli jimxu fin-nofs tat-triq. Din hija kwistjoni prijoritarja ta′ aċċessibilità għar-residenti kollha, inkluż ghat-turisti.

F’Paceville, fil-lokalità ta’ San Ġiljan, il-Gvern qed jippjana li jwettaq il-proġett Safe Cities li permezz tiegħu tintuża t-teknoloġija tal-informatika biex tassisti lill-pulizija fiż-żamma tal-ordni pubbliku. Alternattiva Demokratika fil-Kunsill Lokali ta’San Ġiljan taħdem biex tassigura li f’kull ħin tkun assigurata l-ikbar livell ta’ ħarsien ta’ privatezza fit-twettieq ta’ dan il-proġett. Għal dan l-iskop il-Kunsill Lokali ta’ San Ġiljan għandu jinvolvi ruħu attivament fil-konsultazzjoni pubblika neċessarja għal dan l-iskop fl-interess tar-residenti.

Infakkar li teknoloġija simili qed tiġi ppruvata f’diversi pajjiżi madwar id-dinja. Fir-Renju Unit t-teknoloġija simili hi użata mill-Pulizija. L-NGO li tħares id-drittijiet ċivili, Big Brother Watch, f’rapport ippublikat madwar sena ilu tirrapporta li f’9 minn 10 każi (iva 90%) is-sistemi użati qed jagħtu riżultati żbaljati. Jispiċċaw arrestati persuni li m’għandhomx x’jaqsmu! F’rapport intitolat Face Off. The lawless growth of facial recognition in UK policing dan hu spjegat fid-dettall. Identifikaw uċuħ ta’persuni innoċenti. Dan apparti li r-ritratti biometriċi ta’ persuni innoċenti inżammu u nħażnu mill-Pulizija b’mod sfaċċat kontra kull regola bażika tal-ħarsien tad-data.

Dan kollu jfisser li l-Kunsill Lokali ta’ San Ġiljan li ser ikun elett fil-25 ta’ Mejju li ġej għandu impenn ieħor quddiemu: iż-żamma tal-ordni pubbliku għandu jsir f’ħarsien sħiħ tad-drittijiet bażiċi tal-bniedem. M’hux aċċettabbli teknoloġija li twassal għal żball f’90% tal-każi. Irridu naraw ukoll li r-ritratti u l-filmati meħuda ma jinħażnux iktar milli hemm bżonn.

L-isfidi tal-Kunsilli Lokali illum imorru lil hinn mill-bankina u t-triq.

F’isem Alternattiva Demokratika jiena ser inkun hemm biex flimkien naraw li ħadd ma jkun imkasbar. Il-Kunsill Lokali għandu jkun fuq quddiem nett biex jara li d-drittijiet ta’ kulħadd ikunu mħarsa.

Għax waqt li l-Gvern Malti qiegħed jesperimenta bid-drittijiet tagħna flimkien mal-Huawei, ħaddiehor qed jipprojibixxi dan kollu kif għamlu din il-ġimgħa f’San Francisco!

St. Julian’s Local Council and the surveillance state

At St.Julian’s, this morning, I addressed a press conference with reference to my candidacy for the Local Council elections. The quality of life of residents is central to Alternattiva Demokratika-The Green Party.

Ensuring that our roads and pavements are in good shape is an ongoing commitment. To this we must add the need for the St.Julian’s Local Council to work hand-in-hand with  Infrastructure Malta in order to ensure that the €700 million investment in roads has a beneficial impact on St.Julian’s. Most pavements need replacement too, having been mutilated to facilitate access to garages to the detriment of the vulnerable who due to this and other obstacles, many a time end up walking in the middle of the road. This is a priority for all. Each one of us requires our roads to be reasonably accessible at all times. Both residents and tourists.

At Paceville, within the St.Julian’s locality, government is planning the implementation of a Safe Cities project through which technology will be used to assist the police in law and order.  Alternattiva Demokratika-The Green Party elected onto the St Julian’s Local Council will strive to ensure that the technology used respects privacy at all times. In order for this to be achieved the St Julian’s Local Council should be actively involved in the public consultation on this matter.

It would be appropriate to remember that this type of technology is being tested in various countries around the globe. In the United Kingdom similar technology is in use by the Police. The civil rights NGO by the name of Big Brother Watch, in a report published around one year ago emphasised that the technology in use is identifying people incorrectly in 9 cases out of 10 (that’s 90%). Innocent people end up being arrested. In a report entitled Face Off. The lawless growth of facial recognition in UK policing this is explained in detail. The wrong faces were identified. This in addition to biometric data of innocent persons being retained by the police contrary to all basic rules of data protection.

This signifies that the St Julian’s Local Council to be elected on 25 May will have one additional responsibility: ensuring that upholding public order is done in full respect of basic human rights. It is not acceptable to use technology which is wrong 90% of the time. It also needs to be ensured that all electronic records are not retained more that is reasonably necessary.

The challenges which our Local Councils must face go beyond the maintenance of roads and public spaces.

On behalf of Alternattiva Demokratika-The Green Party I will be there to ensure that no one is ill-treated. The Local Council will lead the way to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected.

Marsa: a planning mess

The Chamber of Architects has taken the Planning Authority to task on the piecemeal local plan reviews that it has been churning out, one at a time. The latest tirade was with reference to a partial review of The Grand Harbour Local Plan (originally published in 2002) specifically with respect to a Marsa Park Site.

We have just concluded a public discussion on a Masterplan for Paceville, which was shredded by public opinion and sent back to the drawing board.

Earlier, we had the Planning Authority itself contesting whether Local Councils, NGOs and the Environment and Resources Authority  had a right to contest the decision to permit high-rises in Townsquare Sliema and in Imrieħel.

To make matters worse, instead of consolidating the environmental regulatory functions of the state, this government has opted to deliberately fragment them, thereby ensuring their reduced effectiveness by design.  In a small country such as Malta, it pays to have one consolidated authority  directed by environment professionals through whom land use planning responsibilities should be accountable.

Land use planning needs to be more focused but holistic in nature. The Chamber of Architects aptly makes the point that focusing the efforts of the partial review of the Grand Harbour Local Plan specifically on “a Marsa Business Park” without considering this within the context  of a much needed regeneration of Marsa would be a futile exercise. The decay of Marsa as an urban centre needs to be addressed at the earliest opportunity and this will not be done through piecemeal local plan reviews but through comprehensive planning “which ought to include community needs, road transport re-alignment, environment improvement and flooding mitigation measures”.

These are the basic issues which should be addressed by a local plan review concerning Marsa. Tackling major infrastructural and social problems facing the Marsa community should take precedence over any proposal for the redevelopment of the Marsa Park site. It is the whole of Marsa that should be addressed and not just one tiny corner.

The partial local plan review is ignoring the local community, just like its cousin the Paceville Masterplan did some months ago. Many years ago we learned that “planning is for people”. This seems to be no longer the case as, according to the Planning Authority, planning is apparently for business hubs, high-rises and, obviously, for developers. They seem to be very well connected, thereby ensuring that they occupy the first items of this government’s land use planning agenda.

Marsa has been forgotten over the years. With the closure of the Marsa power station now is the appropriate time to consider the various accumulated impacts on the Marsa community in order that an integrated approach to addressing them is identified. Planning is for people. That means that the Marsa community should be actively involved when these plans are being formulated, including at the drawing board stage. Land use planners should stimulate the Marsa community to speak up and involve itself in drawing up a blue print for its future.

The regeneration of Marsa is an urgent matter which should not be left unattended.

published in The Malta Independent on Sunday : 15 January 2017

Malta’s Nine Ghost Towns

The 2005 Census had revealed that 53,136 residential units in Malta were vacant. This was an increase of 17,413 units over the 35,723 vacant residential units identified during the 1995 Census. Faced with an increase of over 48 per cent in 10 years, a responsible government would have contained the development boundaries as existing supply can satisfy the demand for residential accommodation for many years to come.

In 2006, just nine months after the 2005 Census, the Nationalist Party-led Government defied common sense and, instead of applying the brakes, it further increased the possibilities for building development through three specific decisions. Through the rationalisation process, the PN-led Government extended the boundaries of development in all localities. Then it facilitated the construction of penthouses by relaxing the applicable conditions. If this were not enough, it increased the height limitations in various localities, intensifying development in existing built-up areas.

As a result of increasing the permissible heights, sunlight was blocked off low-lying residential buildings in the affected areas.

These residences were using sunlight to heat water through solar water heaters or to generate electricity through photovoltaic panels installed on their rooftops.

They can now discard their investments in alternative energy thanks to the PN-led Government’s land use policies!

The result of these myopic land use planning policies further increased the number of vacant properties, which is estimated as being in excess of 70,000 vacant residential units. (Mepa chairman Austin Walker, in an interview in June 2010, had referred to an estimated 76,000 vacant residential properties.)

The estimated total of vacant residential properties is equivalent to nine times the size of the residential area of Birkirkara, the largest locality in Malta, which, in 2005, had 7,613 residential units.

These ghost towns over the years have gobbled up resources to develop or upgrade an infrastructure that is underutilised. Spread all over the Maltese islands, these ghost towns have required new roads, extending the drainage system, extending the utility networks and street lighting as well as various other services provided by local councils.

The funds channelled to service ghost towns could have been better utilised to upgrade the infrastructure in the existing localities over the years.

The above justifies calls for an urgent revision of development boundaries through a reversal of the 2006 rationalisation exercise where land included for development in 2006 is still uncommitted.

Similarly, the relaxation of height limitations and the facilitated possibility to construct penthouses should be reversed forthwith.

All this is clearly in conflict with the efforts being made by the Government itself, assisted with EU funds, to increase the uptake of solar water heaters and photovoltaic panels.

I am aware of specific cases where decisions to install photovoltaic panels have had to be reversed as a result of the development permitted on adjacent property subsequent to the 2006 height relaxation decisions.

In its electoral manifesto for the forthcoming election, AD, the Green party, will be proposing a moratorium on large-scale development in addition to the reversal of the above policies as it is unacceptable that the construction industry keeps gobbling up land and, as a result, adding to the stock of vacant property.

The market has been unable to deal with the situation and, consequently, the matter has to be dealt by a government that is capable of taking tough decisions in the national interest.

Neither the PN nor the Labour Party are capable of taking such decisions as it has been proven time and again that both of them are hostages to the construction industry.

The slowdown of the activities of the construction industry is the appropriate time to consider the parameters of its required restructuring. It is clear that the construction industry has to be aided by the State to retrain its employees in those areas of operation where lack of skills exist.

There are three such areas: traditional building trades, road construction and maintenance as well as marine engineering.

Traditional building skills are required primarily to facilitate rehabilitation works of our village cores and to properly maintain our historical heritage. Our roads require more properly-trained personnel so that standards of road construction and maintenance are improved and works carried out in time. Our ports and coastal defences require a well-planned maintenance programme and various other adaptation works as a result of the anticipated sea-level variations caused by climate change.

The construction industry employs about 11,000 persons. It is imperative that its restructuring is taken in hand immediately.

In addition to halting more environmental damage, a long overdue restructuring will also serve to mitigate the social impacts of the slowdown on the families of its employees through retraining for alternative jobs both in the construction industry itself and elsewhere.

The so-called ‘social policy’ of the PN and the PL have neglected these families for years on end.

 

published in The Times on 29 September 2012

Ħofra fit-triq: il-Kunsill Lokali għandu jħallas l-ispejjes

 

Il-Kunsilli Lokali issa jridu jagħtu iżjed każ tal-ħofor fit-triq.

It-Tribunal għat-Talbiet iż-Żgħar ordna lill-Kunsill ta’ Ħal-Balzan biex iħallas danni ta’ €180 lil persuna li spiċċat b’tyre tal-karozza li kellu jinbidel wara li r-rota tal-karozza spiċċat f’ħofra ftit fonda fil-wied ta’ Ħal-Balzan.

Il-każ ġara nhar it-18 ta’ Jannar 2012 u l-ħofra ma kienitx tidher għax kienet mimilja bl-ilma tax-xita. Il-Kunsill Lokali, irrappurtat it-Times online tal-lejla mhux biss naqas li jieħu ħieb adequat tat-tiswijiet meħtieġa fit-triq talli naqas ukoll li  javża lis-sewwieqa b’sinjali ħdejn il-ħofra.

Din hi deċiżjoni importanti li l-Kunsilli Lokali kollha għandhom jagħtu każ.

Forsi xi darba kulħadd jibda jerfa’ r-responsabbiltajiet tiegħu.

 

Raqda Twila

Austin Gatt (Ministru tat-Trasport) ħareġ direttivi lill-Awtorita’ dwar it-Trasport (ADT) biex tkun l-Awtorita’ innifisha li tieħu ħsieb it-testijiet meħtieġa biex jiġu ċċertifikati x-xogħolijiet fuq it-toroq.

Ix-xogħol għandu jsir sewwa. Min ma jagħmilx xogħol sewwa għal fuq il-black list qal Austin Gatt.

M’hemm xejn ħażin f’dak li qal Austin.

Li hu ħażin huwa li kien hemm il-ħtieġa li jgħidu. Jirrifletti x’tip ta’ management għandha l-ADT. Għax jekk dawn l-affarijiet ovvji kien hemm ħtieġa li jingħadu, jidher li kien hemm min ilu rieqed raqda twila.

Biex tara d-direttiva ghafas hawn: Ministerial Policy Directive 28/04/2008