Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) chairman Harry Vassallo yesterday called for a radical change of policy that overlooks the rights of ordinary citizens in favour of business operations.
During a press conference, Dr Vassallo spoke about the case of a Paceville resident who has been forced to resort to a long series of legal actions and lengthy correspondence with various government entities in order to safeguard his quality of life.
“The case of David Alamango is being used as an illustration of hundreds, perhaps of thousands of similar cases in which ordinary citizens find that there are no effective and quick remedies available regardless of their appeals to the local councils, police, Ombudsman, Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) and courts,” he said.
He pointed out that the authorities began to regard the complainants as nuisances especially if the citizens do not give up the fight.
”Mr Alamango has effectively been denied his right to live peacefully in his home because of noise and a large variety of nuisances coming from the business on the ground floor. To make matters worse, no remedy is provided by the operator or demanded by any legal authority,” added Dr Vassallo.
In Mr Alamango’s case – apart from the inevitable noise created by clients into the early hours of the morning – the operator in question has taken up most of the pavement even though application for a MEPA permit to do so was refused, he said.
Furthermore, said Dr Vassallo, nothing has yet come out of the enforcement dating back to one year ago.
The business operator has also placed a massive generator on the roof of the building which creates intolerable noise and vibration whenever it is in use – constituting an illegal, private expropriation of the principal amenities of the property owned by Mr Alamango without compensation” Dr Vassallo said.
The chairman said that AD is constantly called upon to intervene in many similar cases where citizens have no effective tools to use in their favour.
“There is no reason why business operations and the rights of private citizens should not co-exist in harmony”, he said.
If a business creates a cost to third parties then it should be able to provide reasonable and sufficient compensation and also operate within the law, he added. “No third party should be expected to bear the consequences of any business’s quest for profit.”
Dr Vassallo explained that there is no need for any changes in the laws.
“However, a radical change of policy ending the bias in favour of business operations over the rights of ordinary citizens is needed,” he said.
The present government policy gives no importance to the rights of residents and the situation has now become intolerable in many areas of the country, he added.