Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1515804
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 FEBRUARY 2024 6 INTERVIEW Clint Camilleri: 'No one will be allowed free rein because of me' CLINT Camilleri is set on introducing a new planning policy that will require all new buildings in Gozo to have facades made of Maltese stone. The Gozo Minister tells me all about his idea as we sit down in his office at the par- liament building in Valletta. Parliament was built from hardstone quarried in Qala, the minister's home town. Camilleri was handed the planning port- folio last month after Robert Abela shook up his Cabinet. The new policy is one of the minister's first decisions. He says architects, developers and prop- erty owners have grown complacent over the years, delivering buildings that are un- pleasant to the eye. "Shortly, the PA will issue a circular mak- ing it incumbent on all new developments in Gozo to have facades made out of Mal- tese stone and this will also include the backside of properties where these over- look ODZ areas," Camilleri tells me. He insists this will help create buildings that are more in tune with Gozo's typical urban design. Camilleri agrees with concerns on over- development raised by Gozitan mayors but attributes this to the progress the island has experienced over the past 10 years and im- proved wellbeing. Camilleri says government invested heav- ily in Gozo and this encouraged people to invest in their own land. "Today we are speaking of 'excess' and not of 'nothing', because in the past all we could speak of was of 'nothing'," Camilleri says. I quiz Camilleri on some of the more con- tentious planning policies, including the rural policy enacted in 2014 that allowed the construction of houses in ODZ areas if the owner could prove that somebody, sometime, lived on the land. He says the holes in this policy will be fixed but refrains from giving a timeframe. On the change in the local plans to ensure no development takes place at Ħondoq ir-Rummien in Qala, Camilleri says this will deliver on the Labour Party's pledge to protect the area. He does not exclude local plan changes in other areas but insists these will have to be dealt with on a case by case basis. Camilleri also reiterates his position in favour of a tunnel link between Gozo and Malta but insists he has to be respectful to the strategy outlined by the Gozo Regional Development Authority that recommend- ed the project be re-evaluated in light of improved accessibility between the islands. The Gozo Minister was handed the planning portfolio in January amid doubts expressed by environmental NGOs. In his first interview since the Cabinet reshuff le, Clint Camilleri talks to KURT SANSONE about his ideas for improved aesthetics in Gozo and fixing the holes in some of the more contentious planning policies. "The rules, policies and laws are there to be applied equally"