Labour Party billboards temporarily erected during the election campaign are now hosting adverts of commercial nature, in breach of the planning authority’s legal notice.

Over the past week, several billboards previously plastered with Labour campaign slogans have been promoting adverts for Hamilton Tours and Intimate Malta.

These are all billboards temporarily set up under legal notice 171/93 which allows political parties to set up billboards up to three months before a general or local election.

The legal notice states that temporary billboards may also be erected for purposes of adverts which promote public health, safety campaigns or advertising a “religious, educational, cultural or political event”.

It stresses that temporary billboards should not be used for adverts of commercial nature, as an installation permit would be obligatory for that. The campaign posters on the Nationalist Party billboards have been covered with a white sheet.

The Labour Party has not replied to questions sent by The Times.

A source close to the party said that the billboards running commercial adverts do not belong to the party but were hired during the campaign from outside parties.

According to Mepa, these billboards can remain on site until a month after the election.

“The authority earlier this week wrote to all three political parties to remind them of their obligation and ensure that the billboards they made use of during the electoral campaign will be removed by not later than April 9,” a Mepa spokesman said.