Concluding their fifth annual meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, the officials in charge of property development all over the Kingdom recalled royal directives issued more than 10 years ago preventing people from constructing buildings on wadis, the natural desert flood paths.

Muhammad Sadiq Al-Jiffri, assistant to the mayor of Jeddah for lands and properties, said the meeting asked the municipalities to make a thorough evaluation of municipal properties. He said the meeting also called for the formulation of a mechanism to distribute new plots with services and public utilities and to avoid duplication in land grants.

Al-Jiffri said the meeting reviewed the implementation of the recommendations made by the directors of land and properties in their fourth meeting last year, which included the appointment of lawyers in municipalities to follow up legal issues.

“The Minister of Rural and Municipal Affairs Prince Mansour bin Miteb has already approved this proposal and directed the ministry’s department of planning and programs to implement it,” he said.

He also said the recommendation concerning the training of the staff of the municipalities on legal and Shariah matters was also endorsed and would be implemented.

“This will upgrade the level of these staff,” he said, adding that the training would be conducted at Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.

Al-Jiffri said legal counseling offices would be contracted to defend the municipalities before courts on lawsuits against them until they have their own lawyers.

The gradual use of computers in deciding the ballot for the allocation of land among deserving citizens and the establishment of special departments to manage municipal properties were among other recommendations made at the meeting.