The Malta Environment and Planning Authority is receiving 30 to 40 complaints of infringements from the public every day.

The head of the enforcement section, Stephen Farrugia, said in an interview that every complaint was followed up.

"Most of the complaints are about the 'bad neighbour' aspect, involving change of use of premises, or fixing devices which cause nuisance. In winter, we start receiving complaints about chimney flues because fireplaces are the latest fad and the emissions from these chimneys often bother neighbours," Mr Farrugia said.

According to MEPA's guidelines, a chimney must be three metres higher than the nearest building within a 25-metre radius but few bother to adhere to the guidelines.

"Chimneys are not a very high priority but we do take action.

"In enforcement, we have shifted the emphasis from being reactive to complaints we receive to a proactive stance whereby we monitor the building permits issued to ensure the permits have been complied with.

"We are also placing more emphasis on illegal buildings in the countryside and have introduced a service on Saturdays and Sundays. Several cases of illegal buildings have been detected following this initiative," Mr Farrugia said.

To facilitate matters, architects are being hired to keep an eye and act as go-betweens between MEPA and developers in the case of large-scale developments. The architect is paid by MEPA to ensure that building works are carried out according to approved plans and regular meetings are held between MEPA enforcement officers, the architect and the developers to discuss any issues.

To improve enforcement, a private contractor has been hired to carry out the necessary demolition or other necessary works and three people at MEPA are responsible for coordinating this. Previously, the Planning Authority (MEPA's forerunner), used to have to rely on the works department, which was not always at the PA's disposal.

Direct action is taken on various forms of illegal development, ranging from the removal of boundary walls and scrap yards to the removal of illegal berthing facilities at Comino and the full or partial closure of illegal commercial establishments.

"We aim to have at least one direct action a week to keep up the momentum. It also helps to serve as a deterrent," Mr Farrugia said.

Explaining the process, Mr Farrugia said that when illegal activity on a site was detected, a stop and enforcement notice was issued. Whoever is at fault has 15 days to regularise his position. One can appeal from the enforcement notice or apply to sanction the development. If either of these two things happen, direct action is stalled.

If an application is made, 12 to 26 weeks may pass before the application is determined. If it is refused, one can ask for reconsideration or appeal.

"If you ask me whether I wish it could be faster, I would say yes, but the legal frameworks are there to create safeguards. We no longer hide the fact that we are going to take action. On the contrary, we inform the person involved that we plan to take action on a particular day. Sometimes they remove the illegal structures themselves. Sometimes they try to stop us by seeking a court warrant. When that happens, there are some more delays, but when the court case is decided we are in a stronger position to take action as we would also have the backing of the courts," Mr Farrugia explained.

"We have made a lot of inroads and shattered many taboos. We have demolished boathouses, illegally-built flats and houses and removed scrap yards. Much of this is taken for granted," he said.

"In October and November alone, 161 enforcement notices were issued. Fifty-eight of these dealt with cases which fell outside the development zone. But these are no longer of news value and are taken for granted," he said.

MEPA has 33 inspectors and soon plans to launch the concept of voluntary "green wardens" in consultation with NGOs.

To cope with the workload, local wardens are being roped in to carry out basic enforcement duties and ways have to be found so that wardens can take action themselves rather than having to refer the matter to MEPA.

"We want to end up with a system whereby wardens would be able to issue a ticket immediately for basic offences, such as failure to fix a notice of development. At the moment, they are generating reports which have to be followed up by our inspectors," Mr Farrugia said.

Enforcement notices are now posted on MEPA's internet site and one can carry out a search to see whether action is already being taken about a case or not. MEPA's website can be accessed at http://www.mepa.org.mt.

Another problem MEPA faces is the number of applications it receives for the construction of rooms that are supposedly for agriculture-related purposes, such as pump rooms and reservoirs. From 1998 to September this year, there were over 530 applications for pump rooms. These buildings do not require a full permit but a development notification order is sent to MEPA. A large proportion of such applications was for development which had nothing to do with agriculture but some tried to cut corners and bypass the restrictions on buildings in the countryside by applying for a pump room - even where no sources of water existed, Mr Farrugia said.

The amalgamation of the environment protection department and the Planning Authority has also given rise to some conflicting situations.

Mr Farrugia said an internal task force had been set up to look at the Development Planning Act and the Environment Protection Act and identify the conflicts that existed between the two.

"There are some teething problems and we need to have a legal interface. We recently had an instance where MEPA issued a building permit in Sliema. The permit was for the demolition of a house and back garden and the environment protection department, which is also part of MEPA, issued a stop notice because of the rubble walls at the back of the property.

"There are certain areas, such as dumping, where the action taken under the Development Planning Act would be much speedier than action taken under the Environment Protection Act.

"The task force is comparing the two laws and should draw up a report highlighting the conflicts by January," Mr Farrugia said.