Gozo’s only elected regional authority sought greater powers to administer services for which it had the duty to make financial provisions.

But the 1971 request to Cabinet was put on the backburner by a Nationalist administration that was in the last throws of its legislature.

Cabinet minutes released last week documented the Gozo Civic Council’s request for a greater say on Gozo’s administration.

The regional council came into existence in 1961 and had the power to impose taxes, even if this right was never exercised.

The request for more power was found in the minutes for the Cabinet meeting held on April 29, 1971, just four days after Parliament was dissolved and a general election called for June.

The Cabinet decided that the Gozo council’s president had to submit a list “for further consideration” of services the regional authority wanted to administer.

The list never made it in time for the last Cabinet meetings held before the election and Cabinet papers for the period between 1971 and 1976 were not found.

It is unclear whether the request for greater powers was ever entertained but the Gozo Civic Council only survived for a short while after Labour’s rise to power.

A consultative referendum among Gozitans held in November 1973 had returned a majority in favour of its removal but from more than 15,000 eligible voters only around 200 bothered to vote.

Nonetheless, the government used the poll as a pretext to abolish the council a month later, bringing an end to the only elected regional authority in Gozo.