The FAA welcomes the request to remove the Chalet and Qawra sites from public domain status
The Environmental NGO Together for a Better Environment strongly condemned a request to declassify three sites from the public domain, and accused the state of failing to conserve the environment for future generations.
Times of Malta reported last year how the Planning Authority was running a public consultation on whether it should declassify the site in the Chalet in Tas-Sliema, as well as two sites in Qawra from the public domain, despite requests for several sites to be transferred to the public domain for the enjoyment of all that remains in limbo.
The public consultation closed on Thursday.
Plans for both sites
The government recently published call for proposals for the Tas-Sliema Chalet asking prospective bidders to assume a 65-year lease with a minimum capital investment of €3.2 million.
The other two sites are close to each other on the Qawra shore and appear to be occupied by private lidos.
Last year, the PA approved an outline permit submitted by AX Hotels to redevelop the seaside lidos of the Sunny Coast Hotel, Luzzu and the seashells resort to be integrated with a “network of pedestrian spaces’ which include promenade and promenade squares.
Ironic use of public domain law
In a press release Friday, the FAA said in submissions to the PA it described the irony that the first use of the public domain law since it was enacted was to declassify sites rather than add them. with the public domain.
The PA, they said, did not present an adequate justification for the declassification of these sites, and only said that they are allocated to projects that “serve both private and public interests”. This, the FAA, is too generic a reason and therefore meaningless.
“FAA considers that this motivation is so broad that it can apply to anything and every site in the Maltese Islands and creates an ugly precedent for the declassification of all Public Domain sites,” they said.
“Practically every site in Malta can have projects or developments that “serve both private and public interests”. If this is allowed, the concept of Public Domain will be meaningless and nothing more excess trade.”
The consultation, accused the FAA, is a sham and accused the PA of being behind the launch of the consultation during the Christmas period “to fly under the radar”.
They also claimed that the declassification proposal goes against the spirit of Article 9 of the Constitution of Malta, which requires the state to safeguard the landscape and conserve the environment for present and future generations.
“It is ironic that since the law came in, the first implementation is the declassification and not the promised addition of sites to the Public Domain. FAA has proposed some 22 additional sites but despite the Government’s intention requested in the White Paper, only one was included in the Public Domain,” they said.
“The justification for the declassification has not yet been made and the public is being kept in the dark about the purpose of the declassification contrary to the letter and spirit of the law. Consequently, Together for a Better Environment can only condemn the proposed declassification.”
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