Michael Falzon’s Christmas gift

Abstract

On the eve of Christmas, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Government Land Michael Falzon dropped a bombshell with his development boundary ‘tweak­ing’ comment, which gives the developers’ lobby cause to rejoice but rubs salt in environmentalists’ wounds. Thirty per cent of the Maltese islands is already built-up area. This is six times the average for any EU country. But such a damning statistic is lost on politicians like Falzon, whose track record in­cludes staunchly defending planning policies that pave the way for more fireworks factories in Outside Development Zones (ODZ) areas. These politicians have short memories too. As Petra Caruana Dingli aptly pointed out in her blog about the ‘tweaking’ issue, on the eve of the last election and following a meeting with environmentalists and developers in January 2013, then Opposition leader Joseph Muscat had solemnly pledged not to extend ODZ boundaries. Even exponents of the Malta Developers Association (MDA) have, on more than one occasion this year, said that ODZ areas should not be encroached upon. So this is the perfect opportunity for the MDA, which its president Sandro Chetcuti claims “loves the environment more than environmentalists do”, to voice its opposition to Falzon’s ‘tweaking’ proposals.