The Central Malta local plan

Abstract

The Structure Plan review, an exercise by MEPA aimed at revamping our ten-year-old Structure Plan, forecasts that the Central Malta Local Plan (CMLP) area in 2020 will be our demographic kingpin. In fact, of the seven Local Plan areas, the CMLP one (currently home to 27 per cent of our total population) will equal the South Malta Local Plan (SMLP) area (29 per cent) in terms of household proportions, since both will make up 31 per cent of the total demographic pool. In other words, a dwelling in one of the 11 localities included in this local plan is becoming increasingly coveted. The importance of Malta's heartland transpires from sheer numbers - about 103,000 people live here, including 22,000 living in Birkirkara alone, making it the largest settlement in the Maltese Islands. A cause for concern is that the densely built-up Grand Harbour Local Plan (GHLP) area is being generally avoided and depopulated so that a growing urbanisation and construction footprint is taking over other Local Plan areas. The "spoils" of this "micro-migration" are more vacant, abandoned buildings in the Harbour area. One can only augur that the brains behind local plans use these points to learn from past experience in mitigating the increasing urbanisation of our islands.