Within hours, the Planning Authority has backtracked on their previous controversial decision to hide planning applications objections from the public.
This comes after the Planning Authority decided to limit access to public objections, following a memo that was circulated internally, earlier today.
“Objections that are submitted on development applications will remain fully available to the public in the interest of transparency,” the Planning Authority said in a statement.
It turns out that the previous decision was taken on the basis of a possible breach of GDPR, but the PA has decided to reverse the decision in order to allow more room for discussion.
“Given the fact that the Development Planning Act does not provide any guidance for the processing or accessibility of representations, the Authority opted to follow the guidelines as stipulated in the GDPR.”
“The Authority apologises for any inconvenience this may have caused and remains committed to ensuring that the planning process is transparent and open to public access and scrutiny,” it concluded.
This comes following the Minister for the Environment Aaron Farrugia clarifying that he was not notified of the decision that was taken by the Planning Authority.
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