The planning authority has appointed architect Alexander Borg as enforcement director.
This is a new post that will lead to the setting up the authority’s enforcement directorate as a dedicated structure with its own resources. This had been promised as part of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s reform.
The enforcement directorate will be responsible for monitoring and compliance.
Mr Borg graduated as an architect from the University of Malta in 1993, and obtained a Masters degree from the University of Aberdeen in rural and regional resources planning. He has been working for Mepa for the past 18 years and was a manager within the development services and enforcement unit in recent years.
Over the past weeks, the planning authority introduced several enforcement legislative measures, which have radically changed the status of illegal development.
Applications that seek to regularise certain illegal developments in particularly sensitive areas are not being accepted and immediate enforcement action is now possible even though the developer files an appeal.