AD appeals to government to help local councils carry out their duties
effectively and treat them as autonomous elected bodies and not as an
extension of government departments.
AD Chairperson Michael Briguglio said: “Local councils should have
full cooperation by Ministries and Authorities to implement their
decisions and to enforce basic civic duties such as bye-laws and laws
against littering, nuisance and respect for residents by commercial
establishments. The election of green councillors next Saturday will
ensure that Ministries and Authorities are publicly called to respect
local council decisions.”
“Unfortunately local councils face bureaucratic hurdles, or a lack of
interest on government’s part. A case in point is a draft bye-law
drafted by AD councillor Ralph Cassar in H’Attard and tabled together
with then Deputy Mayor Charlo Bonnici, which despite garnering the
support of the whole council never saw the light of day. The bye-law
sought to promote good neighbourliness by obliging commercial outlets
to clean the area outside and next to their establishment since it is
a fact that streets where there are establishments selling food,
cigarettes and beverages end up full of litter. The bye-law would have
given some extra clout to the local council to tackle this issue.
However this bye-law got stuck, probably because of a lack of interest
on the Ministry of Justice who are supposed to give the go ahead to
councils to approve bye-laws. Local councils are also finding it very
difficult to enforce laws, since they depend completely either on
local wardens who only enforce traffic rules for a couple of hours a
day or else on the police – who are either understaffed or are not
interested in enforcing laws related to nuisance, littering and other
infringements which they consider unimportant.”
Link to draft bye-law:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9j7b3I1RJYkMmljRmF1aldTMFNtRVA3R0llcEc4QQ