We all deserve better

No location is being spared. From Żejtun to Nadur, from St Julian's to Qala, our island is one big construction site.

Recently, President George Vella said he was “shocked and disappointed”.

Venting his disappointment on his Facebook page, he decried a development application in Żejtun. The proposed project is just a stone’s throw away from his private residence and from a Grade 1 scheduled church. He appealed for the application to be reconsidered. His town “deserves better”, he insists.

The president is right. One only has to glance around to witness a systematic demolition of our patrimony, an alarming increase in urban overdevelopment, mega unsustainable projects, the commercialisation of public land/bays and the cementation of our island. The increasing building agitation is all over the island, even in the remotest parts. Literally, no stone is being left unturned. No location is being spared. From Żejtun to Nadur, from St Julian’s to Qala, our island is one big construction site.

If in the not too distant past domes and other aesthetically pleasing edifices had branded our national skyline, giving our localities a distinctive proud identity, nowadays tower cranes and unappealingly poor high-rise developments rule our skies.

If the Knights left magnificent auberges, churches and palaces to admire and the British left appealing colonial town houses, what will our legacy to future generations be?

The eminent architect, Richard England, had this to write in Chambers of Memory: “I don’t think we are going to leave any heritage and legacy that is any way equivalent to that left by our forefathers... we have lost the plot.”

Thousands of residents who have had enough of all this overdevelopment certainly share the president’s outburst. However, I have to admit that I am shocked and disappointed that it took him so long to be “shocked and disappointed”!

Where was he all this time, may I query. How could he have been so unaware of this ongoing barbarism?

How I wish he lived in St Julian’s or in the surrounding areas? How I wish he had to wake up daily to the noise of jackhammers! How I wish he had to face unrestrained and arrogant developers on a daily basis! How I wish his next-door high-rise blocking the sun overshadowed his backyard! How I wish he lived here to experience our daily nightmare.

Though his outburst was commendable, his stand was a classic ‘not in my backyard’ mentality! Though his office underlined his green credentials, may I ask when was the last time he submitted an objection to the Planning Authority, signed a petition, spoke up during a planning session and/or participated in any protest, as we common citizens have done over these last few years ?

Walking the talk is what counts.

Although overdevelopment has long been coming, sadly President Vella is part of the problem. His environmental credentials are questionable. Prior to his presidential appointment, he was a senior member of the cabinet, headed by the disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat. He was part of a government that enabled a number of developers to make hay while the sun shines.

He was a senior member in a government which not only opened wide the floodgates of construction but changed building policies to accommodate a number of greedy fat cats.

He was part of the government that appointed puppet appointees and reduced the PA and other regulatory agencies to act as rubber stamps. As the Latin adage goes: ‘Qui tacet consentit’ – he who remains silent consents!

I am morally convinced that, after his outburst, the servile PA will reconsider the application, concluding that it is not in accordance with current policies and is averse to Żejtun’s streetscape. While such a decision will be highly applauded, it will further demonstrate the sheer hypocrisy of the PA.

It will further reinforce our view that the authority’s approach is of two weights and two measures.

How can the authority then explain the approval of other similar hideous developments in various other localities, even going against its own case officer’s recommendations?How can it explain applications granted within UCAs and ODZ? How can it continue to support the application of turning Balluta Bay into a commercial port when the current policies state that it is a swimming zone/bay?

How will it explain to Joe Citizen the hideous developments next to medieval chapels, windmills and other historical buildings? What is good for the goose ought to be good for the gander but is there a law for the man-made arrogant gods and another for us mortals?

We cannot keep closing an eye to ‘as long as it is not in my backyard’. Rest assured, sooner or later, your backyard will be next. Ask the president about it!

We must stop taking a piecemeal approach to planning. We urgently need to draw a national holistic master plan. Our politicians, as guardians of the common good, must act fast.

I encourage our president to redeem his green credentials by actively joining us citizens

in safeguarding and promoting our environment against this madness. Let this be the

mark of his presidency.

(This article was published on Times of Malta – 22 May, 2021)