The Malta Labour Party has announced that should it be elected to government at the next general election, it will introduce a Local Councils Ministry, by means of which it will provide assistance to local councils to carry out a maximum of two projects in each locality.

Labour leader Alfred Sant first made this announcement on Sunday and elaborated on the party’s plan at a media conference yesterday.

Dr Sant said the MLP has sent a letter to all local councils, asking them to propose ideas for projects that would require assistance from the government. The ideas would then be discussed with councillors to analyse whether or not they were feasible.

Should the party receive positive feedback from local councils with regard to the scheme, the Labour leader said, the party would commit itself to embark on projects on a fast-track basis during the first year of it being elected to government.

Although he stopped short of giving details with regard to the budget that would be allocated for this scheme, Dr Sant said the party’s initiative would give rise to 176 projects in all 88 local councils that chose to make the most of the scheme.

Asked whether there would be some form of ceiling as regards the allocated budget, Dr Sant said: “We do not need to be bureaucratic at this stage.”

The Opposition Leader said many local councils faced a number of difficulties when embarking on certain big projects, so the MLP wanted to provide financial, technical or other assistance that may be needed.

In the letter sent to the local councils, the Labour Party said that all too often the government did not support local councils; sometimes they were also faced with a number of problems and projects were occasionally left incomplete.

The MLP said it would consider all proposals carefully and seriously and good feedback would be given on each proposal.

Dr Sant said the MLP believed this scheme would provide an impetus for the improvement of the social structure, the infrastructure and the economy.

He said two localities – Dingli and Xaghra – have already presented the Labour Party with a few proposals for projects that could be carried out in each of the localities.

Among the projects proposed by the local councils, Dr Sant mentioned a project for the improvement of the Dingli day centre for the elderly, the construction of a water culvert in Triq Marsalforn and the refurbishment of Pjazza Vittoria.