Updated - Adds PN reaction - Capital projects administered by local councils would be benefiting from some of the funds that would be raised through the individual investor programme, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Speaking during a cabinet meeting at the Imperial Band Club in Mellieha, for which local councillors from the northern region were invited, Dr Muscat said the programme would accelerate the country’s development through the additional stream of revenue.
He also said that the government would soon launch a white paper on local wardens as the current system left much to be desired. Emphasis should be on education and not simply on enforcement, the Prime Minister insisted.
He said the government would be supporting councils, especially those responsible for popular touristzones, in maintaining cleanliness in summer as the current level of cleanliness was not satisfactory.
Asked about the Selmun Palace and the adjacent hotel, Dr Muscat said the government would announce a policy at the appropriate time.
Mellieha mayor John Buttigieg, who made a presentation during the meeting, called for the upgrade of the Ghadira promenade and a long term solution to traffic congestion in Mellieha’s main street.
He urged the government to provide funding to help the council implement its plan for a community centre that would include underground parking and an indoor pool.
The mayor also called for more fiscal autonomy but ruled out imposing taxes on residents. He proposed that some of the taxes paid by hotels go to the council to alleviate part of the recurrent expenditure.
PN REACTION
In a reaction, the Nationalist Party said that Dr Muscat had reduced funding for local councils and he was now saying that the councils would benefit from funds which were so far inexistent and which the citizenship scheme was meant to yield.
The prime minister was trying to 'buy' the institutions, NGOs and the people in the same way as he was insisting that citizenship could be sold and bought. He was in a panic because of the negative public reaction to the citizenship scheme and he was therefore trying to deceive the people by telling them that they would benefit from funds which so far did not exist. The PN urged the prime minister to stop deceiving the people and to come up with a serious plan for wealth creation, a plan which should not include the sale of citizenship.