Minister for Local Councils Owen Bonnici tonight warned local councils to stop spending beyond their financial power.

He was answering a parliamentary question put forward by Nationalist MP Robert Cutajar who asked whether the government would be taking action against the former Labour council at St Paul’s Bay, which had over €270,000 in debt.

He said that local councils are independent and autonomous institutions and the government does not intervene, however legislation allows the minister to take action if the local council is facing challenging situations, and is not doing well. So far, this only happened once in Cospicua, when former Minister Austin Gatt had to intervene.

He said that local councils need to plan according to their financial power, encouraging the institutions to tap into EU funds or enter into public-private partnership to support their projects.

Local councils have accumulated debt which amounts to €22 million.