“A good part of our work in the last five years and throughout the lifetime of Alternattiva Demokrattika has been to find out what inconveniences residents suffer from due to an effective remedial system which is completely missing,” said AD chairman Harry Vassallo yesterday at a press conference held in Sliema.

“AD usually gets involved when every other remedy has been exhausted, and the residents finally come to us for help. There is definitely a structural defect because the police and the courts either don’t want or cannot give sufficient remedies. For example in the case of prolonged noise disturbances, a resident has to make a police report and spend months in court, in order to for a bar-owner who is not abiding by the regulations, to be awarded a Lm25 fine,” said Dr Vassallo.

“We want to tackle this problem at its roots in order to control operators so as to make sure they are given the right permits and the law is enforced accordingly,” he added.

AD said they cannot understand why every business has priority over residents, and this does not make sense because wherever we may live we are exposed to being victims of these situations. The Green Party wants a total revision of the remedial system and the way it is implemented in order to safeguard the well-being of residents, and the peace and quiet they have a right to enjoy at home.

“People who invest in their business cannot be given priority over those who have invested in a peaceful and quiet home. As part of the Corporate Social Responsibility one cannot expect to earn money at the expense of the quality of life of others. We find it strange that no other party has made this argument, which affects numerous people,” said Dr Vassallo.

AD are proposing a change in the attitude of the institutions in order to give more respect to the private citizen. Several problems are arising where there are mixed-use zones – that is commercial and residential buildings in the vicinity of each other, they said and cited the case of a generator in Paceville, actually breaking a residents’ windows with its vibrations.

AD are suggesting that to remedy any inconvenience caused by noise at inappropriate hours, an apparatus is installed in the commercial premises to calculate the level of noise produced and at what time it is taking place. The police will have a right to install this apparatus according to the conditions in the owner’s licence, and in such a way no new law actually needs to be implemented.