Two Labour mayors have expressed anger after illegal billboards that had been ordered removed from arterial roads cropped up in their own localities without permits.

Times of Malta is informed that some of the illegal billboards  – owned by Aiken Services Ltd, which has been servicing Labour’s electoral campaigns since 2013 – were recently removed from major roads after being slapped with an enforcement order.

However, at least a couple of the structures, complete with the Planning Authority enforcement orders still stuck to them, have now been placed in other locations.

They display adverts promoting projects being carried out by government agencies, particularly the WSC.

Times of Malta has witnessed a lorry crane, with the logo of Aiken Services emblazoned on its sides, loading billboards and shifting them onto pavements in Qormi and Pembroke.

A free for all culture

A few hours after the heavy concrete and steel structures were put in place, WSC adverts were mounted onto them.

Pressed by social media messages from residents complaining of a “free for all” culture, both Labour’s Pembroke mayor, Dean Hili, and Qormi Labour mayor Renald Falzon, reacted angrily.

Denouncing the action on social media, Mr Falzon said that he had spent four days asking questions, in vain, in order to find out who owned the billboard placed in his locality, with the intention of having it removed.

Insisting that this illegality must not be tolerated, a Qormi resident posted details of the truck used in the operation and informed the mayor that these were the same billboards that had been used by the Labour Party.

Soon afterwards, Mr Falzon again took to his social media page to say that he had been assured “by the authorities” that the illegal billboard would be removed.

The same stance was taken by Mr Hili, who condemned the abuse. He also said the billboard installed in Pembroke would be removed.

Qormi Mayor Renald Falzon informing constituents through Facebook that the illegal billboard in his locality will be removed.

Owned by a group of businessmen close to the Labour Party, including John Debono, appointed an ambassador by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Aiken Services was registered soon after the 2013 election after supplying Labour with tens of billboard structures which cost thousands to assemble.

Asked to explain why it had ignored the law over the billboards in Qormi and Pembroke, Aiken Services Ltd did not reply.

While some of the company’s billboards were converted from political advertising to commercial advertising soon after the last election, in breach of regulations, others were issued with a permit by the Planning Authority. At around the same time, the government, through various ministries and agencies, started using the services of Aiken for its advertising, paying the company thousands of euros.

Currently, both the Tourism Ministry, headed by Konrad Mizzi, and the Transport Ministry headed by Ian Borg, are using billboards that lack PA permits.

Some of the illegal billboards were also supplied with power by the State’s electricity provider, Enemalta.

Enemalta justified the connection of the illegal structures to the grid, stating that this was a “temporary connection” and did not require a planning permit.