In July 2006, Parliament approved what became known as the rationalisation exercise, a decision, taken alongside that year’s Local Plans, to pull roughly two million square metres of land out of protection and into the development zone. Overnight, land that had been outside the development boundaries (ODZ), most of it agricultural, became “within scheme.” The government of the day pushed it through; Labour, then in opposition, voted against it.Twenty years later, Labour in government has never reversed it.What made the exercise particularly damaging is how it was designed to unfold. Because most of this land had no planning parameters attached to it, landowners first needed a Planning Control (PC) application to set the building heights and density for their site, before they could ever apply for an actual development permit. That two-step process is exactly why we’re only now feeling the full weight of a decision made two decades ago. Site by site, year by year, those PC applications keep coming through, and each one converts another patch of what used to be countryside, farmland or open space into concrete.This week it’s Msida’s turn. A parliamentary petition raised by Msida’s own mayor gathered over 1,500 signatures asking Parliament to stop two Planning Control applications on one of the last pieces of agricultural land left in an area that’s otherwise fully built up. Residents and activists have called it the area’s last real green lung, land that also happens to absorb rainwater run off in a locality that already struggles with flooding. Żurrieq is going through the same thing, with agricultural land on its outskirts repeatedly targeted for apartments, all riding on the back of the same 2006 decision, all adding to congestion in roads that were never built to carry it.And it’s not just these two localities. Marsaskala, Iklin, Marsaxlokk, Mosta, Santa Luċija, Attard, Swieqi, Kalkara and Mqabba have all faced the same pattern, and more will keep surfacing, because the 2006 rationalisation map is still sitting there, largely undeveloped, waiting for the next landowner to file a PC application.The realities of 2006 are not the realities of 2026Here’s the part that I think gets lost in every one of these individual planning battles: the decision to rationalise these zones was taken based on the Malta of 2006. Population, traffic, car ownership, the pressure on infrastructure, our understanding of flooding and climate risk none of it looks like it did then. What might have seemed like a manageable expansion of the development boundary twenty years ago is, today, in a much more congested and built-up country, simply devastating. We don’t have the luxury of more ODZ land to give away. What’s left is what’s left.That’s exactly why every one of these sites keeps ending up in the same place: residents object, local councils object, a petition gets signed, and the government tells us its hands are tied because Parliament already decided this in 2006. Technically true. But it’s also government’s excuse to avoid doing the one thing that would actually fix it.The government has already said it would do thisWe don’t even need to invent a solution. The Prime Minister has, on more than one occasion, said publicly that government is prepared to buy privately-owned land to protect green spaces that matter. That’s the right instinct but right now it only gets applied when a locality makes enough noise, one site at a time, after months of petitions and protests. It should be policy, not crisis management.Government is already talking about spending hundreds of millions of euro on creating new “public open spaces” from scratch. I’d argue that money goes a lot further, and does a lot more good, protecting the open space that already exists for free, rather than manufacturing new green space after the countryside is gone. Government should commit to buying out the remaining undeveloped land still caught inside the 2006 rationalisation boundaries, not just when a particular site becomes politically inconvenient, but as a standing, funded programme covering every locality still exposed. Compensate the landowners fairly, take the land off the development track permanently, and let these last green spaces stay green.What I’m asking for:•A formal, funded commitment by government to acquire land still inside the 2006 rationalisation zones that has not yet been legally committed to development, rather than deciding case by case under public pressure.•A published list of every site still affected, residents in Marsaskala, Iklin, Marsaxlokk, Mosta, Santa Luċija, Attard, Swieqi, Żurrieq, Kalkara, Mqabba and elsewhere deserve to know if they’re next before a PC application lands on their street.•Redirecting part of the budget already earmarked for building new public open spaces toward preserving the open space we still have.We can’t undo every planning decision made twenty years ago. But we can stop pretending our hands are tied when it comes to what’s left. Msida this week, Żurrieq the week before, somewhere else next month, the pattern is clear, and so is the fix. Protect what’s left.Michele is an advocate and local entrepreneur interested in the environment and the protection of quality of life in Malta. Inspired by people and personal experiences he wants to contribute to a better Malta for all.Lovin Malta is open to interesting, compelling guest posts from third parties. These opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the company. Submit your piece at hello@lovinmalta.com•