Alternattiva Demokratika yesterday highlighted the inconveniences residents were made to suffer due to the fact that systems for remedial action were lacking.

Pointing out a "major defect in the system", AD chairman Harry Vassallo said the police and the magisterial courts either could not, or would not, offer effective remedies to residents whose quality of life was deteriorating.

The predominant attitude was that businesses had priority over residents - a logic AD said it could not comprehend.

Listing cases of inconvenience caused by, for example, dust, fumes and noise pollution, Dr Vassallo said a Lm25 fine was not a remedy.

Calling for entrepreneurs with a sense of social responsibility, he said residents often had to incur expenses to prove inconveniences when the Malta Environment and Planning Authority could anticipate and stop them from happening.

Dr Vassallo quoted the example of summer flats, where the ground floor was originally a garage when the investment was made, then turned into a shop and, eventually, into a take-away outlet, with a chimney belching fumes.

Dr Vassallo promised that AD in a coalition government would tackle the issue from its roots, suggesting a concrete remedy in the case of noise pollution through the simple installation of equipment that offered an objective measurement of sound levels and times, which would remove any doubts in court.

Laws, Dr Vassallo said, were not seriously enforced. But in a coalition government, it promised a revision of them and the way they were enforced.

AD considered the protection of the quality of life of residents to be an essential value, he said, insisting that they had a right to enjoy the peace and quiet of the homes they had invested in.

No government, Dr Vassallo said, had touched on these issues, which affected so many residents.

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