Swieqi Mayor Noel Muscat has once again highlighted the lack of powers that local councils have to deal with problems their localities face.

This is an issue which has, over the years, come up time and time again, and has yet to be solved. In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Muscat went as far as saying that local councils have been “ridiculed in front of the people.”

"We are elected to administer a locality, and we're not even allowed to administer it." He argued that local councils across Malta are being placed on the "back burner" and were stripped of their traditional responsibilities. Muscat said that essential services like street sweeping and waste collection have been removed from council control and handed over to central government departments without adequate consultation or collaboration. "Instead of helping councils solve problems, they took responsibilities away from us," he said.

Local councils are the first call people make if they notice something wrong in their locality. If there is a particular issue affecting residents, generally speaking they would call up the council, or a local councillor they know. But there is little that the council can actually directly do in many cases.

Councils need to be granted more powers. For example, Councils should have an enforcement arm to better monitor and tackle irregularities in their locality. If restaurants are placing tables and chairs beyond what their permits allow, thereby blocking off passageways, a local council enforcement arm would be quick to act. The same goes for catching people dumping rubbish on pavements on days that they are not being collected for instance. Perhaps they could also have the power to dish out tickets for illegal parking.

In addition, a one-size-fits-all policy for garbage collection is also not working for more densely populated localities, especially those which host tourism zones, thus councils should have the ability to require more frequent collections of certain bags if it is needed.

Obviously all this must go hand in hand with increased financing for local councils.

Councils should, and this newsroom has made this point countless times, also be given a greater voice on major planning applications in their locality.

The issue of carrying capacity studies has been in the press over the past months. Carrying capacity studies should be carried out by all councils, with financial support from the government. The central government should then study and review those studies to help formulate better future planning in localities across the islands.

Local councils are elected directly by people living in their locality. They can and should be better utilised to improve the lives of residents and respond to issues that emerge, but in order for that to happen, the government needs to grant them more powers, and give them a stronger voice.