The Malta Developers Association refers to the announcement that Environment Minister Josè Herrera has ordered a revision to the policy regulating the issuing of permits by the Planning Authority for the building of petrol stations.
The MDA recalls that, when the PA was drawing up the current policy, it had not accepted the MDA’s suggestions and went on to approve the current policy despite it being clear that it was going to have a negative environmental impact.
Despite all this, the MDA also points out that frequent changes in development policies create an undesirable situation. In this case, there are those who invested in land that qualified according to the existing policy for a petrol station to be built on and, when the policy is changed, these investors are going to find out that the authorities have misguided them. Any change in the policy should safeguard the interests of investors who applied and signed contracts under the current policy.
29 January 2018