Parliamentary Secretary Michael Farrugia said in parliament today that in the same way aerial photos of homes had been taken by Mepa during the previous legislature, Mepa was now taking pictures of facades of properties, based on purely the same concept as before.

He was replying to a question made by PN MP Ryan Callus why Mepa had assigned a number of photographers to take pictures of the facades of homes as part of a ‘survey’.

“Mepa had engaged in taking 3-D photos of homes so that in the event a home owner decided to conduct external changes to his/her home without applying for a permit, the owner/s would be identified,” Dr Farrugia said.

He added that the pictures were being taken so that if anyone abuses of the system and conducts changes to his/her façade, Mepa would be in a position to identify who the owner of the home undergoing façade-related changes is, based on the same principle aerial photos were taken by Mepa under a PN-led government.

“I don’t think that Labour in Opposition at the time had contested the issue,” Dr Farrugia said.

This portal is informed that on seeing individuals taking pictures of their facade, a number of home owners react aggressively. However, the minute photographers produced an official identity card issued by Mepa, things came to a calm the majority of times.

This portal is also informed that photographers are being paid around 100 euros each for every one kilometre stretch covered.

Prior to replying to the question related to the Mepa survey, Dr Farrugia said that the government was working on strategies to simplify the Malta and Environment Authority’s policies.

He was answering to one of a series of questions made by the Opposition.

He said that this government felt that due to the issue that many permits were not being issued due to problems that may have ensued, “we are looking at new policies which will tackle such problems”.

Dr Farrugia said that this government was also looking at the demerger of Mepa and insisted that heritage-related matters would form part of the planning section.

Regarding the new Mepa tariffs set by the working group appointed by the government, Dr Farrugia said that due to the reduction in tariffs, applications increased.

He claimed that applications had reportedly decreased when the tariffs were increased during the previous legislature.  

“There was a surge in applications due to the fact that applicants were aware of the fact that tariffs were to be increased at the time,” he said.

He highlighted that now “we are seeing a good deal of projects being developed, mainly investment-related more than residential building developments”.