The planning authority has tweaked its development permit procedures to provide applicants with more financial flexibility.

Applicants will no longer be required to tie up any necessary bank guarantees within six months of a development permit being issued. Instead, they can now provide the necessary guarantees at any point within the permit’s five-year validity period, as long as guarantees are deposited before any works commence.

Third party objectors also stand to benefit from the modification, as they can now appeal against a development permit the moment it is issued, rather than having to await the depositing of any required bank guarantees, said Malta Environment and Planning Authority CEO Ian Stafrace yesterday.

“This tweak may be to the detriment of Mepa’s revenue flow but we feel it is fair, given the economic climate, to allow applicants to pay any necessary guarantees prior to the start of any works, even if that’s a couple of years down the line from when a permit was issued,” Dr Stafrace explained.

He also announced another modification to existing procedures. In cases where street and sewage fees exceeded €10,000, applicants would only be required to pay these fees upon receiving a development permit.

Previously, street and sewage fees were paid upfront and then refunded if the development permit in question was refused.

Dr Stafrace said that an analysis of 2011 development permit statistics revealed that in more than 99 per cent of cases, required timeframes had been respected.

Procedural reforms had also allowed Mepa to significantly cut down on application timeframes, Dr Stafrace said.

Applications which in January 2011 had to be processed within 26 weeks were now being processed in 12, while the 52-week deadline for large-scale applications had been halved to 26 weeks.