MEPA tribunal recommends against FAA on Valletta Project

The Environment and Planning Review Tribunal yesterday gave their “recommendation” on Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar’s (FAA) appeal against the Valletta Rehabilitation project to construct a new City Gate, Parliament building, new theatre at the Royal Opera House and landscaping.

FAA said that it “had maintained that this project violates Malta’s Structure Plan” which states: “Parliament and ministerial offices must make use of existing palaces and auberges in Valletta whilst an administrative centre will be built outside Valletta to house all Government departments.”

FAA said that the Appeal Tribunal, rebutted that “Prima facie it can be said that the permit granted is inconsistent with this policy, however, this Tribunal cannot understand how this policy can ever be implemented, not only because there exists no provision or plan for the building of such an administrative centre outside Valletta, but because of the negative consequences on auberges and palaces if these are altered or modified to accommodate offices with today’s necessities. This is in respect of serious problems of incompatibility in the designated use especially when one considers issues such as services, security, amenities etc.”

FAA said it “respectfully states that the remit of the Appeals Tribunal is to review matters regarding violations of procedure, and certainly not the feasibility of conversion projects. FAA therefore expected a ruling on whether the policy has been broken or not. The opinion of the Tribunal as to possible alternative uses of other palaces and auberges is quite frankly irrelevant.” FAA continued, “as for suitability of conversions, FAA refers to Palazzo Verdelin which is being adapted to house the Valletta Police station and the Banca Giuratale to house the Ministry of Infrastructure. FAA furthermore asks why the Auberge de Baviere was restored with the intention of housing Parliament.”

FAA also appealed against the granting of the permit on the grounds that no serious public consultation was held as the government is obliged to do given that it is a signatory of the Aarhus Convention. FAA said that the project was presented as a “fait accompli and given wide, orchestrated publicity while the comments of the public were totally ignored.”

As regards public participation, FAA commented that the Tribunal stated, “This is an important point particularly when one considers that the site has a socio-cultural significance not only on a national but also on a world-wide basis since Valletta is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is therefore essential that the participation of the public should be considered, but one should not expect that any proposal for a national project must necessarily accommodate the ideas and the expectations of everybody, or that it pleases everybody.”

FAA maintains that this directly contravenes the Aarhus Convention which states that our authorities “shall ensure that in the decision due account is taken of the outcome of the public participation,” especially in view of the fact that the project received a record-breaking number of over 1,200 objections at MEPA, FAA said.

“The Tribunal in fact conceded that no true public consultation was carried out and recommended that for future plans, the time during which the public is invited to submit comments should be lengthened.” FAA states “that in its appeal it did not ask for the lengthening of the public consultation period, but had asked the Tribunal to assess on the proof it submitted that no public consultation was held. This also in view of the fact that the developer did not produce any proof from his part, that public consultation had in fact taken place and that the comments of the public had been looked into seriously.”

“These are serious violations of the EU Directive on public information and participation,” FAA continued, that it “has already held a meeting with the Brussels EU Infringements Unit who view the matter very seriously.”