Hate fireworks? Noise pollution law on the way

Now the public can tell the government what it thinks about noise pollution in Malta...

Beautiful... and noisy
Beautiful... and noisy

Draft bills on noise pollution and climate change are expected to be issued for public consultation before the summer recess of parliament. 

The main emphasis of the new law regulating noise pollution will be that of giving citizens redress against flagrant abuses in a sector presently governed by fragmented legislation.

“Frustration over noise pollution is often compounded further by the fact that the fragmented manner in which noise pollution is regulated, often makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to know who to turn to when existing laws are flagrantly abused of,” a spokesperson for the Ministry for the Environment and Sustainable Development told MaltaToday.

Although substantial work on noise legislation was carried out under the previous government, this did not come to fruition.

The main objective of the bill is to ensure that regulations will be implemented. The environment ministry said that once the Environment and Resources Authority is set up there will be properly trained personnel on noise pollution issues. Under the present set-up, Malta Environment and Planning Authority lacks personnel to address noise pollution issues on a full-time basis.

Work is also going ahead on climate change legislation and a technical team has been appointed to prepare draft legislation which will be ready by summer.

Once the climate bill is approved by parliament, Malta will be one of the few EU member states to have actually legislated on the matter.

The environment ministry confirmed that it was the minister’s intention to consult the Opposition on both sets of legislation way ahead of the relevant parliamentary discussion.

Government also intends to consult key stakeholders on both pieces of legislation at the appropriate moment. NGOs like Friends of the Earth had lobbied hard for the introduction of climate legislation but the idea had been shunned by the previous government.

Both bills were promised during Budget 2014 while the PL had also proposed a framework bill covering climate change when in Opposition.