Minister urges councils to be proactive

Local councils should seek ways to make money and raise funds for local projects rather than wait for the government to allocate the budget, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said.

The European Union offered several programmes through which local councils could raise money which, he said, could be raised in substantial amounts with some proactivity.

Dr Borg was speaking during a visit to Birkirkara local council, the council having the largest population.

He said that since it was the 10th anniversary of the setting up of local councils, he intended to organise a national conference to evaluate and discuss what had been done during this decade. Dr Borg also said that the councils, except for a few, had worked responsibly and for the citizens they represented, and as time passed the responsibilities and power given to local councils had increased.

Since local councils had been set up, the yearly Lm11 million the government allocated to the localities had been shared in a more fair and just way.

Dr Borg also said that now that the local councils fell under the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry, local councils' requests would be dealt with at a faster rate since the bureaucracy one had to go through had been decreased.