Transport Malta to ensure all billboards abide by rules, in three-step process

Anyone wanting to place a billboard in Malta will now have to follow a three-step process involving permits and licenses from the Planning Authority, the Lands Authority and Transport Malta, transport minister Ian Borg said, as he announced a new legal notice on billboards which will be issued later this week.

Borg explained, at a press conference this morning, that the main problem with billboards in the past was the non-payment of the required fee for the use of public land to the Lands Authority, following the issuance of a billboard permit by the Planning Authority.

“The main type of billboard-related abuse is that those who put up the billboard do not pay the encroachments bill to the Lands division,” the minister explained, adding that the three authorities involved in the process will now start communicating with each other to ensure that all required steps for putting up a billboard are followed.

It will now be up to Transport Malta to ensure that the billboard has a planning permit and that its owner has paid the fee due to the Lands Authority. Transport Malta will then issue a license, on the condition that the billboard has been certified as a safe structure by an engineer and is not an obstacle to drivers.

Moreover, every billboard will now have a tag which identifies the company which owns the billboard, Borg said.

The legal notice, which was finalised following a public consultation process which started in April last year, will provide two exemptions to these rules, namely for the Office of the President, and for non-governmental organisations who might want to put up billboards to advertise any event or initiative they are organising.

The billboard rules for the President’s office will remain as they are, with the President having ten billboards across Malta she can utilise.

NGOs will also have ten billboards, spread around Malta in locations deemed suitable for advertising by Transport Malta. NGOs - many of which don’t afford to pay the fees for a billboard - will be able to choose one of the ten available on the island and apply to set-up an advert for a philanthropic activity on one of them.

Borg also announced that billboards situated next to scheduled or grade 1/grade 2 buildings will no longer be allowed, nor will those placed next to the coastline. Banners attached to trees will also be banned.

Bicycle sharing regulations

The government would also be giving the chance to companies which are offering a bike sharing service to regularise themselves, Borg said.

“Although some companies have stepped forward to offer a bike sharing service, these are currently unlicensed. We are thus giving them the chance to get up to scratch and abide by the relevant regulations,” he said, with a rack for bike sharing being coincidentally located behind him as he spoke.

Both the billboard and bicycle sharing regulations will give a period of three months within which those companies involved have to regularise their position, after which the relevant new laws will be enforced, he added.