Clampdown on owners of vacant sites

Five enforcement notices have been issued by Mepa since April to owners who failed to erect boundary walls around their vacant sites.

About 179 complaints were received from local councils since new regulations came into force last April making it necessary to wall off such sites.

Negotiations are underway with regard to 82 complaints and walls have been built in 14 of the cases, a spokesman for the Environment Ministry said.

He said almost 900 boundary walls were put up around vacant sites since the regulations came into force.

The regulations were enacted to address the environmental and safety impact of vacant sites which could render the area unsightly and potentially hazardous. Some sites were being used as dumping sites, leaving the area shabby and posing a health and safety hazard.

Local councils started advising Mepa to issue an enforcement notice on vacant sites that were causing degradation to the environment in April. Failure to abide by the notice within three months would result in a fine of Lm50 per metre of frontage, subject to a maximum of Lm1,000.

The site owner would also have to pay, with interest, for the work carried out by the local council to construct the boundary wall and no development permits would be issued on these sites unless the bills are settled.