Three years ago, when selling my Żebbuġ home, I discovered to my alarm that the previous English owner, 15 years earlier, had constructed not one but three illegal extensions to the original permit.

I immediately contacted the Malta Environment and Planning Authority requesting their help and employed an excellent local architect to draw up plans seeking to obtain a sanction permit.

My lady Mepa ‘case officer’ was outstandingly efficient and polite; as was everyone I spoke to at Mepa.

Not once did I have the extreme discourtesy, whilst living in Malta, to describe Mepa’s officials as ‘being spiteful because I was foreign’.

In fact, the very opposite was true – my permit was processed in under three months – and I actually felt that I’d been given priority because I was an Englishman! Maybe the retired British couple, living in Lija, should be thankful both to God and to the Maltese Government that they are allowed to reside in these friendly isles. To conclude, should any foreigners living here be unhappy with Malta, its so friendly people and legal planning laws, then there’s a very easy solution!