Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1115758
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 MAY 2019 NEWS Developers: landmark ruling on rent demands overhaul THE Malta Developers Associa- tion has called on government to introduce a new permanent rent regime, following a landmark Constitutional Court decision. The courts ruled this week that tenants on disproportionately low protected rents entered into before June 1995 can have their tenancy rights challenged. The ruling was made in a case filed by two siblings who were unable to exercise their full property rights over a three-sto- rey house with a large garden in Sliema. They told the court that the fact that the lease would be inherited by the tenant's children meant they had no real hope of ever gaining effective possession of it. In a statement yesterday, the MDA said owners of such prop- erties were having to make due with a "fair rent", despite soaring market values. It noted that the court had ruled that the regime created an unjust imbalance between owners' and tenants' rights "with the former having to shoulder, for years on end, the social burden induced by the current legislation". The MDA said the ruling meant that the country was now effec- tively in a position where various areas of control legislation have been found to breach the funda- mental rights of citizens to enjoy their property. At the same time, it said, gov- ernment was evaluating feed- back to its recently issued White Paper on rent reform. "The whole issue of rent reform should be tackled comprehen- sively so that a balance is found between the rights of landlords and the protection of tenants," the association said. It added that "attempts at piecemeal solutions" so far had, rather than overcoming prob- lems, led to the creation of more legal complications. "Such a radical change can- not be foisted suddenly on the country and therefore govern- ment should seek to establish a new permanent rent regime ap- plicable for all rented property to be introduced in stages over a reasonable transition period," it said. MDA appealed to all property owners to continue to join the association and insisted that it will be at the "forefront" to ad- dress these injustices. NGOs: stop DB project, 'undeclared' Cold War bunker at St George's A group of NGOs are calling on the Superin- tendent for Public Health to issue an emergen- cy conservation order on what they are claim- ing is a previously undeclared Cold War facility underneath St George's Barracks. In a statement yesterday, the NGOs noted how following the Planning Authority's ap- proval of the DB Group project in St George's Bay last year, three local councils and several NGOs and residents had come together to ap- peal the decision. "Now, plans and evidence have come to light showing the existence of an underground Cold War bunker created to house a sub-station in the 1950s, and an engine room dating from the 1930s," the NGOs said. They said the features were of "considerable significance from an industrial heritage as well as military point of view". Despite this, the NGOs said, there was no mention of them in the heritage assessment re- ports commissioned by the developer. They said that both features, along with the earliest example of British period barrack blocks in Malta would be "totally obliterated" were the project to be allowed to go ahead. The NGOs questioned how it is possible for a Cold War bunker and other heritage features to have been "completely overlooked" during the planning application process, which they said was supposed to be thorough and extensive. "We cannot understand how such features have failed to show up on any of the studies presented to the public and supposedly scruti- nised by the Planning Authority. It shows that the public has no one to turn to for effective assessment of applications. This smacks of a shoddy and negligent approach where all is fast-tracked and heritage is ignored so that it can more easily be destroyed. We are request- ing the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage to issue an Emergency Conservation Order on the heritage features on site and to carry out a proper assessment to save what can still be saved," the NGOs said. The statement was endorsed by Din l-Art Ħelwa, Ramblers' Association of Malta, Bird- Life Malta, Friends of the Earth Malta, Movi- ment Graffitti, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Bicycle Advocacy Group and Żminijietna – Voice of the Left. The Cold War bunker was created to house a sub- station in the 1950s, located right beneath the site where the Institute of Tourism Studies stood. Access is from the hill that connects St George's Bay to the upper hotels area