Until May 2023, the Development Planning Act (Chapter 552), which governs the issuance of planning permissions by the Planning Authority, contained a definition of “commencement notice” which read as follows:
‘a notice submitted by the permit holder on behalf of the applicant to the Authority within a period of five days before the commencement of works or utilization of permission. The purpose of this notice is to inform the Authority about the date of commencement of works or utilization of permission. Additionally, the notice should include the name of the licensed builder, the permit holder, and the site manager as defined in the site management regulations. It should also provide their contact details, allowing them to be reached at any time.’
This required the perit responsible for the planning application informing the Planning Authority, with details of the builder and site manager as specified in the site management regulations (currently SL623.08) once the permit is issued. It is important to recognize that this definition was formulated in 2015, at a time when the legislative intent was to amalgamate the then Building Regulations Office into the Planning Authority. This objective is still reflected in one of the aims of the Planning Authority, which is still outlined in Article 7(2)(d) of Chapter 552, specifically aiming to:
‘…perform and succeed in the functions which were previously assigned to the Building Regulation Board and the Building Regulation Office under the provisions of the Building Regulation Act and which are now contained in this Act and to perform and succeed in the assets, rights, liabilities and obligations of the Building Regulation Board and the Building Regulation Office established under the provisions of the Building Regulation Act to the extent that the Minister may prescribe by regulations under this Act’
Yet, the primary purpose of the ‘commencement notice’ in the Development Planning Act was to inform the Planning Authority that the development permission had been put into effect, as outlined in the proviso to Article 72(4) of Chapter 552. Concurrently, the Building Regulations Office continued its existence under Chapter 513, known as the Building Regulations Act. Its role was defined as a government organization responsible for the administration of building regulations and control regulations established by the said Building Regulations Act. This administration encompassed various tasks, including enforcing building control regulations.
The merger of the Building Regulations Office into the Planning Authority never materialized. Indeed, the Building Construction Authority was established in 2021 under the Building Construction Authority Act (Chapter 623 of the Laws of Malta), vested with a clear mandate, which included the responsibility:
‘… for the regulation, improvement and sustainable management of the building and construction industry in Malta.’ (Article 5)
Therefore, post-2021, the distinction between ‘planning’ and ‘building regulations’ became more evident. All aspects related to construction site management after the issuance of the planning permit fell distinctly within the jurisdiction of the Building Construction Authority (BCA). Meanwhile, the Planning Authority had to bear in mind that the only reason for requiring the commencement notice was to ascertain whether the granted planning permit was being utilized.
Therefore, it was entirely sensible to amend the commencement notice on 19th May 2023, through ACT No. XVI of 2023, to read as follows:
‘“commencement notice” means a notice submitted by the perit on behalf of the applicant to the Authority at least five (5) days prior to the date of commencement of works or of the utilization of a permit, to notify the Authority of the date of commencement of works or of theutilization of a permit’
For some peculiar reason, the Planning Commencement Notice still linked the perit notifying the Planning Authority with the utilization of the planning permit with the responsibility for the works on-site. This perpetuated the conflict within the mandate of the Planning Authority, as mentioned earlier, since the details of who is responsible for overseeing the works on-site strictly fall within the purview of the Building Construction Authority (BCA). This is particularly noteworthy, as it is a common occurrence that there are multiple periti responsible for on-site works, each handling different types of tasks. Furthermore, all or some of these periti might differ from the one responsible for overseeing the issuance of the planning permission.
This deadlock was addressed this week with a new commencement notice issued by the Planning Authority. In this revised notice, there is no mention of the perit’s on-site responsibility; instead, it solely indicates the utilization of the Planning Authority permit. On the other hand, the details of the periti responsible for the site works will be solely provided to the BCA via a different commencement notice.
This is a crucial step that we’ve needed for years, particularly in cases where periti responsible for issuing the planning permission continue to have their names featured on official documents, despite the fact that the structural design and monitoring of the actual works are handled by another perit specialized in that field.
