Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1075590
RISE IN PARENTS WHO CHOOSE ETHICS INSTEAD OF RELIGION FOR THEIR CHILDREN IN MALTESE SCHOOLS SUNDAY • 27 JANUARY 2019 • ISSUE 1003 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.95 YOUR FIRST READ AND CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SUNDAY • 27 JANUARY 2019 • ISSUE 1003 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY SUNDAY • 27 JANUARY 2019 • ISSUE 1003 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday 2 INSIDE TV star CLAIRE AGIUS ORDWAY TAKES THE Q&A JAMES DEBONO JUST one year after Labour won re-election by one of the highest-ever margins, the na- tional planning machine was busy churning out more per- mits than ever for develop- ment in overbuilt Malta. 2018 saw the Planning Au- thority approving nothing less than 12,885 dwellings – the highest-ever number, surpassing the previous re- cord of 2007 when the PA ap- proved 11,343 dwellings. Annual statistics published by the Planning Author- ity show that this was the fifth consecutive increase in the number of dwellings ap- proved by the PA since 2013, when only 2,707 permits for new dwellings were issued. Since 2013 the number of newly-approved dwellings has shot up by a staggering 376% – an average of 74% eve- ry year. In total, 119,886 new dwell- ings have been approved since 2000, of which 24.5% were approved in just three years between 2016 and 2018 dur- ing which the PA approved 29,339 permits. The number of new dwell- ings has now reached the same level as that approved in the property boom between 2005 and 2007, when 30,833 dwellings were approved in three years. Building mad: Record-breaking 13,000 permits issued by PA MATTHEW VELLA A number of Bank of Valletta employees have sued the bank for pension funds which they say were arbitrarily and discriminatorily distributed to other employees, in a lawsuit whose claims for damages could reach €20 million. Some 90 employees, mostly retired, are calling on the bank to disburse a special pension that was stopped in the mid-1970s after top brass had decided on two separate occasions to top up two retiring employees' pensions. The group of workers, most of whom have since retired, had been employed between July 1976 and May 1977 and had contributed towards the Consolidated Staff and Widows and Orphans Pension Fund, a fund intended to provide a two-thirds pension to the staff upon retirement. Millions in claims in BOV employees' pensions lawsuit Pension Fund, a fund intended to PAGE 4 RISE IN PARENTS ETHICS INSTEAD OF RELIGION FOR THEIR CHILDREN 7 6- PAGE 3 HEY, WHO'S AFRAID OF HUAWEI? The Chinese tech giant's foothold in Malta PAGE 10 MARIO VELLA 'We're like an old-ish car, struggling to cope with the sheer speed of the economy' INTERVIEW 16-17