Fines for illegal development are set to increase drastically to a maximum of €50 daily and a final penalty of €50,000 under a new legal notice to be published in the coming weeks.

The penalties were divulged by Malta Environment and Planning Authority chairman Austin Walker in an interview with The Sunday Times.

The measures, which Mr Walker describes as indispensible, are part of a new drive against illegal development.

"We are turning the enforcement system on its head. Mepa enforcement will never be effective without a strong deterrent and now Cabinet has approved this principle. Whoever, is going to do something illegal will think about it twice and even three times," he says.

He also says the government has pledged to dedicate a magistrate to planning and environmental issues, a move which Mepa has been lobbying for because of a massive backlog of planning court cases.

The maximum penalty for sanctioning an illegal development is being raised from €2,300 to €50,000. However, under the reform of the authority, which comes into force in October, illegal development outside development zones or in scheduled buildings will be banned outright.