St Paul’s Bay residents have begun circulating a petition demanding action from their local council to improve life in the town, amid growing anger over waste disposal and construction sites.

The petition, being hosted and circulated by Moviment Graffitti, calls on authorities to ensure proper enforcement of construction regulations, and to cap the volume of planning permits for residential and commercial projects.

Among other demands, it calls for more frequent garbage collection and better enforcement to ensure that all rubbish, including from businesses, is properly disposed of and collected.

“Daily, we suffer the inconvenience, physically and mentally, of living and working in an area where the pavements are blocked by piles of garbage, where rules on dust, noise and safety in demolition and construction are routinely ignored, and rats dance in the street,” Karen Tanti, one of the residents behind the petition, said in a statement.

Waste disposal has caught the headlines in recent weeks, with environment minister José Herrera calling an urgent meeting with the St Paul’s Bay local council to discuss the growing problem.

Residents are also calling for weekly bulky refuse collection in designated areas, as well as increased enforcement through green street wardens, use of CCTVs in hotspots, and daily street cleaning to ensure that all garbage is removed.

Meanwhile, residents said, construction work was increasingly impacting their day-to-day life, with 520 permits issued in the town in the last year alone.

They insisted that pavements should be left accessible to the public even during construction work and any pavements broken by construction work must be fixed by the developer within a few days, as well as calling for time limits on ongoing construction works.

They are also proposing a restriction in the hours during which construction and excavations/demolitions can take place, a limit to the number of roads closed for construction works, and a limit on the number of parking places that are taken away from residents.

Residents said the petition would be presented to the local council, and warned of “further actions” if their demands were not met in a reasonable time.