Billboards advertising public work being carried out by the government do not require permits to be put up as long as they are removed upon the project’s completion, it has emerged.

Times of Malta sought information on the matter from the Planning Authority after one such billboard promoting the government’s Central Link Project was placed on a central strip at Mdina Road in Attard a few weeks ago.

No permits or any other notices were found in connection with this billboard.

The road where the billboard is located is one of the areas that is being upgraded as part of the €55 million project to improve the arterial thoroughfare bet-ween Saqqajja Hill in Rabat and the Mrieħel bypass.

According to a PA spokesman, since the billboard is related to the Central Link Project, no permission was needed. This was stipulated in a legal notice which came into effect earlier this year as part of a series of revisions of regulations on billboards and advertisements. The revised regulations facilitate the control of illegal billboards by the Planning Authority and other competent authorities.

Since it is related no permission was needed

Up to two billboards advertising public and/or EU-funded projects may be put up by the government, provided these are located within the site boundary of the project and that they are removed on completion of the project, the legal notice states.

In recent years, the illegal use of billboards has repeatedly made headlines, with the Planning Authority issuing hundreds of enforcement notices in an attempt to address the issue.

Both the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party were last year found to have flaunted the law after billboards intended for the election campaign were also used by both parties for commercial advertising.

The subject made headlines again earlier this year after billboards calling for justice over the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia were removed by the Planning Authority on a Friday night, a few hours after being put up, with activists complaining this was an “act of suppression”.

At the time, the authority said that the billboards removed had pending enforcement notices, along with others that were also put down and which all had been served months before with similar removal notices.

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