ADPD, in a statement on Sunday, has insisted that the right to use solar energy and carbon neutrality should be included in planning policies and there should be no more “planning sandwiches.”
The Party Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo, statement insisted that land use planning policies should be amended expediently to entrench solar rights and correct the deficiencies of the Local Plans.
Cacopardo pointed out that the Local Plans, which were approved around 14 years ago in 2006 relaxed height limitations in various localities.
As a result, a number of low-lying residences have ended up sandwiched between blocks of flats, he said. “Being literally in a perpetual shadow they cannot benefit from solar energy neither to generate renewable energy nor to be able to make use of solar water heaters.”
“This is the result of the planning policy makers doing their utmost to avoid the provisions of the Strategic Environment Assessment Directive of the EU which was only implemented in Malta a few weeks after the approval of the Local Plans, said Cacopardo.
He explained that the Strategic Environment Assessment Directive of the EU seeks to examine policies, plans and programmes in order to ensure that their environmental aspects are effectively considered.
“Avoiding this Directive meant that the conflict between height relaxation and access to sun’s rays to generate solar energy could not be addressed, added Cacopardo.
He argued that “the impact of the increase in the permissible building height is increasing in severity with time as the redevelopment of old properties is being gradually taken in hand.”
“This is resulting in the shadowing of an ever-increasing number of residential units in a number of residential areas,” said Cacopardo.”As a result, solar water heaters and photo voltaic panels installed on a number of roofs in the past years, are now in the shade for a considerable amount of time and consequently they are practically useless.”
He stressed that investments made by a number of our families have been “sacrificed on the altar of development greed.” Subsidies (including those originating from EU funds) which were utilised to assist the tapping of solar energy have thus been thrown down the drain.
In Parliament, earlier this week Minister Miriam Dalli in reply to a Parliamentary Question stated that government was holding internal discussions on the matter. Unfortunately, over the years the matter has been discussed many times to date unsuccessfully, said. Cacopardo.
He pointed out that the most obvious option is to revise as much as possible the height relaxation carried out in 2006. This will however be very difficult to carry out, and, if done, it will most probably be followed-up by a request for compensation running into many millions of euro.
He added that, alternatively, one can seek to introduce solar rights on new buildings without further delay.
ADPD called for planning policies to be amended to ensure that all new properties, in particular blocks of flats, are able to generate sufficient electricity to cater for the number of units in new buildings, thus ensuring carbon neutrality.
Cacopardo concluded by saying that “in so doing a history of planning wrongs would commence the long and difficult road of correction.”