A number of billboard owners have complained about discrimination in the process involving the removal of illegal outdoor advertising spaces. Speaking with this newsroom, some owners said that certain owners were being given preferential treatment.
They claimed that enforcement officers were slapping some owners with fines, while others were allowed to remove them under their own steam without being fined.
According to the Planning Authority, 260 Cease and Desist notices for the removal of billboards have been issued. “The respective owners removed 82 billboards prior to the issuing of an Enforcement notice, while 100 were removed after an enforcement notice was issued. As it has done over the past days, the Planning Authority will continue, with the removal of illegal billboards which are subject to enforcement notices,” a Planning Authority spokesman told this newsroom.
Questions to the Planning Authority
But this newsroom subsequently asked more questions which were not answered by the time the article was submitted. The questions included: A request for an explanation as to why some billboards being removed by enforcement officers directly after the agreed deadline passed, while others took longer or have not yet been taken down at all.
Why some operators were being forewarned that enforcement officers were on their way so they would quickly take down the billboards in order to avoid fines, while others weren’t.
The questions were sent on Tuesday.
The enforcement notices which were slapped on the billboards, read that the structures are in breach of the Planning Act of 2016 and Legal Notice 103 of 2016. In order for the breach to be dropped, the Planning authority requires the owners/advertisers to remove the said adverts and billboard/structure immediately. It also warned that, if no action is taken, the authority has the power at law to enter the property and remove the offending adverts and billboards. Failure to take action could result in daily fines or a fine of between €1,000 and €5,000.
New billboard regulations
The new billboard regulations stipulate that applications for advertisements and billboards have to be submitted and processed by the Planning Authority, subject to clearance by Transport Malta. This entails paying a one-time fee to the PA and an annual fee of €1,500 to TM. These billboards may only be placed at designated sites established by the PA.
Immediate changes in legislation without time for transition – GRTU
GRTU Malta Chamber of SMEs said: “The implementation of LN103/2016 has put forward concern on the conditions within which billboard operators have been faced. A business sector which was completely unregulated in practice suddenly faced immediate changes in legislation and widespread enforcement without time for consultation nor transition.”
It continued: “Apart from having to deal with sudden enforcement by the authorities that sought to tackle a long-standing issue, indirectly brought about by gross negligence of the authorities in implementing fair regulations and enforcement for decades, that forced the sector into eat or be eaten working conditions, they now reportedly suffer unjustly from discrimination in enforcement procedures.”.
The GRTU said: “Our members have complied close to 100% to the PA’s request to remove their billboards which did not have full permit. They however informed GRTU that identified operators were not only not removing the billboards as they had been asked to do by the PA through enforcement notices but these same operators filled their illegal billboards with the adverts our members had to cancel according to the orders issued by the PA”.
“Now law-abiding billboard operators are very aggravated with the current state of affairs. From what we have been informed the PA started enforcement immediately following the deadline agreed to, but it appears that this enforcement was very selective and while our members have been subject to enforcement on the few unpermitted billboards they left standing in protest, the other operators that took no kind of action with regards to the PA’s enforcement notices, were not subject to enforcement in the same way their competitors were”.
“GRTU finds unjustifiable that the multiple reports by members who have had their billboards removed by the PA continue while it seems that it has consistently failed to carry out its enforcement when it comes to these same other particular operators”.