Over 4,000 pending cases at Mepa

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority decided 794 applications last month and received 727 new applications.

The net pending load at the end of last month was 4,178 cases.

In the same period, the authority processed 61 notifications of development that do not require a formal application.

In addition, 87 stop and enforcement notices were issued, 65 in Malta and 22 in Gozo.

Also 36 enforcement cases were closed, 23 in Gozo and 13 in Malta. Of these, 27 cases were sanctioned. Eight cases were resolved once the owners decided to remove the illegal developments following enforcement action and another case was withdrawn by Mepa.

The complaints office received 48 cases that were resolved without the need of issuing an enforcement notice because the owners complied with instructions by Mepa. These consisted of 44 cases in Malta and four in Gozo.

Mepa also carried out two direct action operations.