The Planning Authority is currently programming a system to ensure that all commencement notices on developments are available online, the Times of Malta is informed.

The system will inform people when the authority receives a notice from an architect that permitted work is to commence, a spokesman for the PA said.

The initiative was proposed during a meeting with local councils mayors two years ago, and Planning Authority chief Johann Buttigieg supported the recommendation, the mayors told the Times of Malta.

However, the proposal seemed to have been pushed down the agenda, with many mayors lamenting the lack of information on when construction work was about to start.

Asked about the proposal, a Planning Authority spokesman said: “The system is currently being tested and will be launched in less than 15 days.”

Mayors have long lamented that they are not informed when construction works in their locality start. 

Local councils are not equipped to handle PA issues

They said they needed to be informed in order to “be in a position to make contact with the developer, discuss matters and see what the council needs to do,” Swieqi council mayor Noel Muscat said.

The problems being created by developers were consuming most of the local council’s energy, he lamented, adding that most mayors found themselves helpless when issues related to construction work arose.

“In reality local councils are not equipped to handle PA issues,” the Swieqi mayor said.

“We spend most of the day chasing the various developers who are carrying out work in the locality without having applied for the necessary permits to use cranes, lifters or skips, for instance,” he said.

The dust problem, which is created due to illegal works and the sometimes shoddy demolition methods used, is another big headache for the council, Mr Muscat said.

“This is an insult towards the residents and the entire locality,” he added.

Nationalist Party spokesman for local councils Robert Cutajar said that through his experience working in local councils, he was familiar with the bureaucratic elements which councils found difficult to overcome.

“For example, people wake up to work on their doorstep and the local council is caught unawares,” he said. 

Local councils have been reduced to customer care offices, Mr Cutajar lamented.