Owners of illegal billboards do not need to provide a planning permit to obtain a power supply from Enemalta, according to the State agency’s policy.

According to long-established rules, an applicant who wants to install a new power supply at his residence or commercial entity is obliged to present a copy of a Planning Authority permit together with the Enemalta application for a new service.

An Enemalta meter (circled) providing power to an illegal billboard in Attard.

This is done to make sure that Enemalta does not provide a service to an illegal dwelling.

Nevertheless, this same procedure is not being adopted by Enemalta to illegal billboards, as they are being supplied with power despite notices by the Planning Authority that they are illegal and are under an enforcement order.

'Temporary', insists Enemalta

Asked by Times of Malta to justify how illegal structures, placed on many of Malta’s arterial roads, are still connected to the grid by Enemalta, a spokesman explained that this is because they are only given “a temporary supply”.

Asked specifically about an illegal electronic billboard in Mdina Road, Attard, erected by Transport Malta and illegally used by Infrastructure Malta to promote the controversial Central Link project, and which was connected to an electricity by Enemalta employees, the spokesman said “this application was submitted complete with the necessary documentation in line with normal terms”.

Pressed to state whether these documents include a valid PA permit, the spokesman admitted this was not the case.

“Applications for the temporary service of electricity, save for construction sites, do not necessitate any PA documents,” he said.

The spokesman did not specify for how long a temporary supply of electricity remains in place. Times of Malta is informed that some illegal billboard structures supplied with electricity by Enemalta have been on a temporary meter for years.

“This is another way how the State is creating loopholes to regularise illegalities,” a billboard owner who operates within the legal framework said.

A PA notice affixed to an illegal billboard... but it remains there just the same. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Illegal billboards abound

In the past weeks, Times of Malta highlighted instances where government ministries are placing adverts on illegal billboards put in place before the last MEP elections on behalf of the Labour Party.

Instead of removing them within a week from the publication of the electoral result, as required by law, the billboards are still in place illegally. To make matters worse, the government is spending thousands of taxpayers’ money to advertise its projects on them.

The Tourism Ministry led by Konrad Mizzi as well as Ian Borg’s Transport Ministry are among the government entities making use of these illegal structures.

Although the PA has issued enforcement notices against these illegal structures, it did not act to remove them, as the law stipulates.