Letters | Sunday, 15 March 2009

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Jason and the enforcement officers
I refer to the article by Michael Falzon (15 February), criticising the work Parliament Secretary Jason Azzopardi is doing. Amongst other comments, Falzon said that Azzopardi is “weak with the strong and strong with the weak”.
I completely disagree since I consider those who have seen action taken against them as the strong who have been benefiting while the weak have been suffering for years. Thank God we have Azzopardi now who is taking the proper enforcement action.
I should remind Falzon that when he was responsible for MEPA, enforcement was non-existent. When former Minister George Pullicino was responsible, things got even worse. It was during Pullicino’s reign that the authorities were weak with the strong and strong with the weak.
I have been battling with the authorities to take action on a restaurant operating without a permit, with an illegal kitchen in the basement, illegally stored gas cylinders and illegal occupying of the pavement, for the past 12 years. We never got any help whatsoever from Pullicino, far from it, it seemed that those breaking the law were being taken care of.
Along comes Azzopardi and with the help of Paul Miruzzi all of a sudden the job is done, although MEPA are still chewing over how to tell the owner that he has to close completely down, since his permit covers only a class 4 retail shop.
I congratulate Azzopardi, Miruzzi and their team for a job well done and call on the new MEPA chairman not to follow what Falzon did when he was responsible, but to keep on the good pace.

P Grech
Sliema

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