Owners of advertising billboards are claiming that the planning authority is turning a blind eye to structures owned by a company which supplied illegal billboards to the Labour Party in the past.
Mepa has been accused of procrastinating for more than a year to take action against scores of illegal billboards that mushroomed all over the island’s road network a few weeks before the last election.
But now that the authority has started taking action, operators are complaining that some illegal structures are being treated differently to the rest.
“While all my billboards have been removed by Mepa, almost all the illegal billboards of the company which supplied free advertising space to the Labour Party before the last elections are still in place,” one operator complained.
They took mine and left the one adjacent, which used to advertise Labour’s propaganda
The Sunday Times of Malta took pictures of a number of illegal billboards around the island owned by Aiken Services Limited, which supplied some 60 illegal billboards to the Labour Party before the elections.
A Mepa spokesman confirmed billboards used commercially to advertise Malta Community Chest Fund and government events are illegal.
However, he added they will eventually be removed in an enforcement plan being coordinated by Mepa. No date was given for their removal.
According to Mepa, which only took action against illegal billboards following the MEP elections last May, a total of 140 enforcement notices have been issued against illegal billboards in the past eight weeks.
A total of 52 of these illegal billboards have been removed by the contravener, whereas the authority removed 63 illegal billboards during seven direct actions, the spokesman said.
Asked why the billboards of Aiken Services Ltd were not removed like the others, the spokesman said “the authority is following a programme of works to remove the remaining illegal billboards over the coming weeks”.
However, operators are disputing Mepa’s actions and are accusing it of “blatant discrimination” due to a political agenda.
“I’ve witnessed this discrimination with my own eyes,” another irate billboard company owner said.
“They came with a truck to remove illegal billboards from Santa Venera. They took mine and left the one which used to advertise Labour’s propaganda erected adjacent to mine. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said.
The Sunday Times of Malta is informed that the majority of the billboards still on the roads are those belonging to Aiken Services.
The private company had built and supplied some 60 illegal billboards to Labour before the election to use them for its campaign free of charge.
Instead of removing them after the election, the company added some 30 new illegal billboards on the streets and started using them commercially.
On their part, many of the new government’s ministries and state agencies started using these billboards for their campaigns against payment from government coffers.
Pressed many times on this issue, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat admitted the government was using illegal billboards but shifted the blame on the private contractors.
Last May he promised action will be taken.
Mepa sources said the authority is currently in the process of issuing permits for a number of new billboards.