Draft regulations on roadside billboards are to be published within the next few days, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority said yesterday after missing its own deadline for the removal of illegal structures.

Mepa spokeswoman Sylvana DeBono told The Times that specific sites will be earmarked for the erection of billboards, satisfying both design and traffic safety criteria.

At the end of September, Mepa had promised to embark on a clean sweep of illegal billboards and a total of 70 - the vast majority of them lining the streets - had been stamped with an enforcement notice.

All billboards with the exception of permanent structures and those displaying non-commercial notices were meant to have been removed by Mepa officials at the end of the two-week enforcement notice. But since then there has been little or no change, with most billboards now displaying new adverts.

Ms DeBono explained yesterday that following discussions with the billboard operators, Mepa had in fact removed a number of billboards while others were dismantled by the operators themselves.

Some billboards which had been moved to secondary roads have been identified and were being removed, she added.

The authority's planning directorate will in the coming days issue policy guidelines on permanent billboards for public consultation. The legislation governing billboards has always been a grey area, with responsibility shifting between Mepa and the Malta Transport Authority. Mepa assumed responsibility for the situation at the beginning of September after the authorities realised that billboards were sprouting up in an uncontrolled manner across the island.

Many billboard owners were under the impression they could keep advertising different products after paying for a one-time permit. Some of the billboard companies had been given a temporary permit by Mepa in the past on the grounds that they would be removed after a specified number of weeks.

The advertisers however, some of whom pay up to Lm500 a month, say they were not made aware by the billboard owners that the structure is actually illegal.