4 August 2007 Rating 102% No Comment  

Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar has said that it welcomes the new proposals to amend the Development Planning Act, which it said would hopefully result in a new chapter for MEPA's, up until now, dysfunctional and powerless enforcement arm. The new scheme will entail monitoring of any Outside Development Zone constructions through detailed and continuously updated aerial photography of our islands, a strategy already proposed by Hon George Pullicino last year in Cabinet, but which did not gain sufficient backing amongst MPs at that time. FAA therefore cannot fail to be pleased at this significant change in heart at Cabinet level last week when the scheme was finally given the green light. The strategy will also see swifter execution of enforcement orders by MEPA, a ten-fold increase in fines to nearly 23,000 Euros for any illegal development and an Appeals Board specifically set up for pre-May enforcement orders. These amendments will certainly be welcomed by all law abiding citizens. Now that the issue of illegal developments is being addressed, FAA calls for a similar review of the approval procedures for major projects being planned Out of Development Zone, especially the new Environmental Impact Assessment amendments which make it easier to build such structures legally in what little is left of our countryside or unbuilt shoreline.