We have wrecked our villages and pillaged our countryside – Arnold Cassola

Politicians blame one another for decisions taken in the past which have led to the current degradation of our towns and villages. What we should be asking our politicians now is: how are you going to pull the country out of the mess we are already all in before it gets any worse?

Fortunately, Din l-Art Ħelwa and a few other NGOs have recently resorted to the law courts to declare guidelines issued by the Planning Authority (such as DC2015 and its annexes) unlawful and, thereby, void.

These and similar policies purposely (mis)interpret clear rules in our laws and local plans to skew very basic concepts, such as the meaning of two or three floors in our laws which, abracadabra, transform themselves into five or six floors.

The result of the application of these unlawful guidelines is manifest across our urban spaces. Quaint streets of two or three storey houses are now peppered with unsightly five- or six-floor apartment blocks which have destroyed any semblance of symmetry in our streetscapes.

It is farcical to think that it must be a court of law that will have to determine that reference to two or three floors in our law actually means what it says and not five or six floors,...