Physical Planning bill makes its way back to National Assembly |04 November 2021

After a rather tumultuous journey, the Physical Planning Bill made its way back to the National Assembly and was finally approved by parliamentarians yesterday afternoon.

Once President Wavel Ramkalawan assents to the new legislation – which he is most surely to do – the Physical Planning Bill will replace the Town and Country Planning Act of 1972.

The Bill, which was presented to the National Assembly yesterday, seeks to revise and consolidate the law relating to land use, planning and sustainable development, establishing the legislation which will guide the Seychelles Planning Authority.

Its journey into becoming legislation however was not without hiccups.

The Physical Planning Bill was first presented to the LDS-controlled National Assembly in August 2019 by the previous United Seychelles executive branch of the government which was being led at that time by President Danny Faure.

With their majority in the National Assembly, LDS members of the sixth National Assembly made some amendments of their own to the Bill, including reducing the minister’s power and amending the way members of the board of the planning authority would be selected, to the displeasure of the US MNAs.

Honourable Sebastien Pillay at that time said the amendments forced on them by the LDS, radically changed the complexity of the law, making it completely different from how it was initially anticipated and hence the US did not vote on the Bill although it was approved.

Once it reached State House later that year, in 2019, President Danny Faure refused to assent to the Bill and make it law, stating that he did not agree with the way the members of the board of the Planning Authority were to be selected and felt that appointments should be made by the executive branch with the oversight of the National Assembly.

Given that President Faure did not assent to the Bill, it was introduced back to parliament in March 2020 for a two-thirds vote which would have made it into legislation but the Bill fell flat on its head when it received 15 votes in favour and 10 against – perfectly representing the dichotomy of the parliament before the 2020 general elections.

Vice-President Afif, who made the Bill’s grand entrance back on the floor of the chamber yesterday, explained that the Bill imbues the Seychelles Planning Authority with power so that it can enforce the law and take up actions against a developer, construction companies and individuals who break the law.

VP Afif elaborated that the Physical Planning Bill has been over 10 years in the making with various consultations undertaken with key stakeholders and different versions brought forward, most of which proved lacking in one way or another.

The Physical Planning Bill endows the Seychelles Planning Authority with the power to produce a stop-notice to halt constructions when necessary and an enforcement notice in special circumstances such as in the interest of national security, health and environment.

The Bill mandates that any construction on the coast should provide the public with continued access to the beach.

“The construction industry has evolved in an accelerated manner which makes many of the provisions established in the Town and Country Planning Act of 1972 redundant to current realities. Hence this new Bill expects to resolve these deficiencies and update the legislation in a way that better fits these modern times and also taking into account the future,” detailed VP Afif.

The new Bill imposes penalties of up to R500,000 and terms of imprisonment for those in the construction industry who flout provisions under the Physical Planning Bill such as undertaking a construction without permission from the Seychelles Planning Authority.

Developers and contractors who continue to work on a site after receiving a stop-notice will be charged R5000 for each day they ignore the notice and may even be sentenced up to two months in prison.

The Bill also seeks to provide a better framework to deal with issues such as way-leave or right of way with the aim of resolving challenges that pop up in regards to their legality.

The minister overseeing the implementation of the Physical Planning Bill will be able to make regulations to support the Physical Planning law that are already in the stages of preparation including regulations for prices for submissions of plans, standards of construction, use and development of land, division of land, categories of developments and public consultation, among other regulations.

US MNAs such as Hon. Wallace Cosgrow were quick to point out that not only did the LDS government bring about the same Bill worked on and presented by previous administration without much change, but it did so in the greatest turnabout manner possible.

“While as the opposition, the LDS had lambasted the extensive roles of ministers in legislations, now it saw no issue in having the minister play key role in the Physical Planning Bill while the LDS had fought against the president selecting candidates to sit on the planning board, now it had no problem with the same happening since the LDS is in power.”

On their side the LDS MNAs agreed with the Bill’s provision to ensure that the board of the Planning Authority is made up of members from relevant ministries as well as four members to be appointed by the President upon the recommendations of the overseeing minister.

Hon. Norbert Loizeau countered that the difference between the LDS administration and the US administration is that the former had no minister or officials holding a large number of land parcels, allegedly acquired in suspicious ways, which is why it had been important at that time for the LDS opposition to set these limitations.

Reaching the third reading stages, the Physical Planning Bill was approved with 22 votes in favour all from the LDS MNAs while eight US MNAs abstained.

Elsie Pointe