The local government ministry is to spend a year consulting with the public and other stakeholders on how to reform councils.

Over a decade after the last reform, the local government minister, José Herrera launched a green paper with a list of ten policy benchmarks for discussion. 

They are inclusion, education, cleanliness and maintenance, culture and national heritage, mobility and accessibility, innovation and technology, health, environment, transparency and security.

Local government representative Mark Muscat said priorities will include improving rural and urban locales and promoting sustainability. But when asked if councils will have increased powers such as vetoing development seen as detrimental, he said  “planning discretion in the hands of central government will still be prioritised”.

Other priorities include upgrading cleanliness and maintenance, digitalisating some government services, improving accessibility, increasing collaboration with the health sector and safeguarding community through policing and CCTV.

The consultation is set to go on for about a year, with the ministry aiming to take in feedback from stakeholders including residents, commercial and public sector operators and NGOs.

Launching the proposals on Wednesday, Herrera said "nobody knows the realities of communities better than their councils”. 

However, some councillors were not impressed.

Paola mayor Dominic Grima escribed the proposals as “words and policies that look nice on paper but leave a lot to be desired”.

He was among a series of councillors who said government departments fail to communicate adequately with councils, referring to unannounced infrastructural works disrupting the link between councillors and their constituents.

“We are giving our time to act like a bridge between citizens and central government, and we deserve to be informed,” Grima said, describing times when  he had people calling him up with questions that he could not answer due to a lack of information.

Director-general of the local government department Natalino Attard pointed out that the last reform that occurred in connection to councils was in 2009.

“After 11 years, one can appreciate the need for reform, and this vision is something which we want to use as a benchmark to better address the needs of every locality,” he said.

The green paper will be available here shortly.