By Times of Malta
Momentum has claimed that the government will be changing laws to only allow appeals against planning decisions to be filed within 15 days. Citing 鈥渒nowledgeable sources鈥, the political party said it was informed the 15-day limit would also apply to appeals filed with the law courts. Currently, citizens have 30 days to file an appeal against a Planning Authority (PA) decision with the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT), which reviews PA decisions. Anyone wishing to file an appeal against EPRT decisions and take the issue to the law courts also has 30 days to do so. Should Momentum鈥檚 claim prove correct, the government would be effectively halving the amount of time available to file an appeal. 鈥淭he Government is intent on curtailing the rights of citizens and NGOs to file appeals from Planning Authority decisions,鈥 it said in a statement. Party chairman Arnold Cassola said the restricted time period was a sign the government wanted to curtail people鈥檚 rights. 鈥淔ifteen days is not enough time for citizens to get advice from legal and architectural professionals to file an appeal,鈥 Cassola said. 鈥淩obert Abela’s Government wants to neutralise this right. It has learnt nothing from the Jean Paul Sofia inquiry recommendations and is intent on keeping rampant construction above the law”. The government has for years vowed to revise planning laws to end the anomaly of development projects being allowed to go ahead even if they are the subject of ongoing appeals. Activists say the current system makes a mockery of the appeals process, as many projects are already built by the time appeals proceedings are concluded. That appeal process has been stalled for years. Last March, returning PA CEO Johann Buttigieg pledged to have a new system in place by June. He provided no details of what was being planned.