There are over 5,000 pending enforcement notices at the Planning Authority, The Malta Independent can reveal.
The statistics were provided by the Planning Authority in response to a question sent by this newsroom, asking for the number of enforcement orders currently in effect, divided by the year the orders were issued.
The 5,382 pending enforcement notices stem from between the years of 1993 and 2021, the information shows. 14 of these notices date back to 1993 (the oldest date provided in the data sent to this newsroom).
There are 967 pending enforcement notices that had been issued between the years 1993 and 1999, the data shows.
2,973 pending enforcement notices had been issued between the years 2000 and 2010. The rest, (1,442), had been issued between 2011 and 2021.
The total number is, however, less than the total was at the end of 2020, showing that the backlog is slowly being tackled. The PA’s Annual Report for 2020 read: “At the end of 2020, the pending caseload of stop and enforcement notices issued since 1993 stood at almost 5,600. This is a decrease of over 8% from the pending caseload at the end of 2019.”
A number of other questions were also asked to the PA, including for the number of enforcement orders issued in 2021, how many of these enforcement actions saw the contravenors fix the problem, and how many direct enforcement actions were taken by the PA in 2021. The PA was also asked to provide the number of enforcement officers employed with the PA and also about concerns regarding enforcement fines not being too high.
A PA spokesperson said that 36 enforcement officers were employed with the Planning Authority as at the end of 2021. There were 164 stop and enforcement notices in 2021, the spokesperson said
Last year, 6 direct enforcement actions were taken in the form of physical interventions to stop or remove illegal developments .
“In 149 cases, the contravenors addressed the illegality after an enforcement notice was issued. In 774 cases, action was taken by the contravenor following a complaint, but prior to an enforcement notice being issued.”
Regarding fines, the spokesperson said that they are regulated by law, and in 2016 “significant changes had been made to the legislation in terms of maximum fines, which can go up to €200,000.”
“It is pertinent to note that the Authority’s Compliance and Enforcement Directorate engages in continuous monitoring and discussions with the contraveners so as to rectify the irregularity on site, either through the submission of an application for sanctioning to be considered when the illegal development may be accepted by regulations and policies, or else the removal of the illegality from their end. In fact, one may notice the high instances where contraveners addressed the illegality after an enforcement notice was issued which results in the closure of the notice.”
The PA deals with thousands of complaints alleging illegal development each year. The PA’s annual report for 2020 read that it received 3,313 complaints from various sources, alleging illegal development, during that year. The Directorate managed to investigate and close off a total of 3,347 complaints during 2020. “Following investigation in 55% of the cases, the Authority found that illegal development was being carried out. The property owner/occupier submitted an application to sanction works for 818 of the complaint cases. In 45% of the cases, the contraveners themselves complied or removed the illegalities, prior to further action being taken,” the annual report for 2020 read.