‘Give councils the power to issue permits’
The developer’s association said it was time to look into the possibility of local councils issuing permits covering minor changes in existing buildings.
The MDA asked whether there could be a self-regulatory system with architects taking responsibility for development and where conditions of development “are clear enough and without any equivocations”.
These could make processing development applications more efficient, it said, referring to a recent World Bank report showing that in Malta it took an average 237 days to obtain a permit in a process involving 11 procedures and a cost equivalent to 234.9 per cent of the island’s income per capita.
The findings, it added, confirmed the association’s complaints that planning tariffs were “exaggeratedly high” and that the planning authority had been caught up in an unnecessary bureaucratic tangle that only served to waste time.
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M Sciberras
Nov 12th 2012, 13:46
Local councillors are unpaid, apart from the mayor who receives a pittance. Many are admirable people with a sense of duty. Many others are using local politics to further their business and political careers. Either way, Maltese local councils lack the professionalism or the ability to issue development permits - the MDA knows this too well. So it is interesting to explore why they want this.
Peter Murray
Nov 12th 2012, 21:32
Not entirely accurate sir, as other councillors are subject to a remuneration for their services and the Mayor's pay is not exactly a pittance as you intimate.Don't give me the money -just give me the power!The rest of your input I wholeheartedly agree with and the answer to your last inquiry is surely rhetorical!
Ms.D. Galea
Nov 12th 2012, 11:57
Terrific idea. First we have proposals of giving sixteen year olds the right to vote for local council elections. Then the candidates elected by these sixteen year olds are expected to decide on permits in their locality.''where conditions of development are clear enough and without any equivocations”.
The mind boggles.
Peter Murray
Nov 12th 2012, 11:43
This suggestion MUST NEVER happen.As local councils would be subjected to even more undue and excessive pressure to acquiesce to the mostly unscrupulous developers which actually happens in some cases already, as they solicit the local councils" support" for major planning application developments-as has happened in the case of Mellieha Local Council which also has conflict of interest concerns.
C Muscat
Nov 12th 2012, 10:23
Unless and until any authority is responsable for its action, all these reports are a mockery of justice. We never had any black, white or grey areas of development. The permits are always being issued separately each case on its own merits. And these merits are.....
Jay Oatmon
Nov 12th 2012, 09:42
Is this just a plan to corrupt more people and bend the rules again to benefit the developers?
Daniel Soler
Nov 12th 2012, 11:28
nicely put!!
ANTHONY PAVIA
Nov 12th 2012, 11:55
My thoughts exactly. What with 69 (or whatever the number of local councils) newly created MEPA power lookalikes! There will not remain one square meter of soil within 10 years.
Please choose the reason of your report below: