An article in yesterday's edition of The Malta Independent on Sunday pointed out some issues that Regional Councils are facing.

One common issue, according to representatives from the Regional Councils for the Northern, Southern, Eastern regions, is waste management.

The executive secretary of the Northern Regional Council, Bjorn Bonello, commented that in areas such as St Paul's Bay, "where the population is over 54% non-Maltese, the diverse demographics create additional difficulties". Those difficulties, he continued, include "language barriers, crammed and often substandard living conditions and atypical working schedules" which, he said, make it difficult to educate residents and effectively communicate waste management practices.

Jesmond Aquilina, the president of the Southern Regional Council, said that one of the problems is the lack of enforcement. Anthony Chircop, the president of the Eastern Regional Council, said that those involved in waste management operation, such as all the contractors, should perform their duties by honouring their contract obligations while each local council assists with promoting a campaign for residents to follow and observe the waste collection schedule.

Firstly, when it comes to enforcement, perhaps the time has come to again give local councils enforcement arms, not only to enforce waste management breaches, but also to better regulate encroachment of tables and chairs for instance, and parking violations. This is something that this newsroom has mentioned in the past. Councils would know where the problem areas are, and what issues are present, more so than national authorities.

As for ensuring that people understand what the waste management regulations are, a greater push for educational campaigns would help, especially if as Bonello suggested, there would be targeted government support to fund multilingual education campaigns.

Another point that would definitely help, would be requiring new apartment blocks to have a room which stores garbage and recycling bags, from which contractors would just go into and pick up the bags due on a particular day for pickup.

If not one, but three regions are facing the same problem, then it is clear that something is not working right. As such, clearly some changes are needed.

Another issue pointed out by the Northern Council executive secretary, Bonello, is that there is a "lack of respect for regional and local councils as a tier of government". He said that it is too often that regional councils are treated as "subservient rather than equal partners", which he said undermines the principles of subsidiarity and democracy which form the foundation of the regional councils' existence.

We have seen councils effectively ignored by authorities in the past.

Having centralised authorities is important of course. For example, when it comes to road infrastructure, it makes sense to have a central authority organising the works around the country. Although it must be said that the lack of communication with other authorities resulting in roads being dug up again after works conclude is a clear waste of funds and should not be happening.

But there are other instances where the government should give more powers to councils. One example could be as this newsroom mentioned earlier, when it comes to giving councils an enforcement arm. Another example could be by giving councils real strength on major planning applications in their locality.

But what should never happen is that local councils are ignored on matters that affect their locality. Sadly it does.