Opposition environment spokesman Leo Brincat said today that it was shameful that a court had to remind the country that it does not have laws against noise pollution.

The Labour shadow minister was reacting to a court case decided last week. Without going into the merits of the case, Mr Brincat pointed out that the EU had the Environmental Noise Directive to control excessive noise.

He said that while in the past, noise was simply seen as an inconvenience, recent studies had established that they contributed to hypertension, high stress levels and hearing problems, among other issues.

Mr Brincat said the government needed to wake up to the fact that noise pollution affected the quality of life.