The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA)in a statement today said that it “strongly refutes yesterday’s statement made by Flimkien Ghall-Ambjent Ahjar [1] (FAA) that over the past days the Authority has been rushing with the processing of deciding planning applications due to the forthcoming election.”
“This statement is unfounded and irresponsible. FAA clearly knows that with the new procedures, as introduced in January 2011, an application cannot simply be placed for a decision on the agenda of an Environment and Planning Commission (EPC) from one day to the next,” MEPA said.
“The new procedure entails that an application is placed on the EPC’s agenda a minimum of 21 days before the public hearing,” MEPA concluded. “All agendas are accessible to the public through the Mepa website www.mepa.org.mt [2]. Additionally, all planning decisions are published daily on the website and once a week on a local newspaper .”