Mounting anger over lido takeover of beaches

As temperatures rise, tempers are also flaring between beach establishments and individuals over who gets to occupy the few beaches that dot the island.

While beach establishments have a permit to set up their paraphernalia, families and individuals are complaining that they often cannot put up their own umbrella because the little space on the beach is already taken up.

When contacted a spokesman for Mellieha local council said they received calls from people complaining that the beach lidos had taken up the beach with their umbrellas and sunbeds.

"We get some complaints on lidos in Ghadira, but the majority of the problems seem to be from those who go to Armier," the spokesman said.

"Apparently in Armier the sunbeds have got too close to the shoreline, preventing people from lying on the sand with their feet in the water.

"Every summer we receive complaints and there are so many beach lidos that it's very hard to control," she added.

The numerous lidos that dot the beaches all said they had permits to set up the umbrellas, and while some had a permit for 60, others had a permit for 100 umbrellas.

It's good money - the rental of an umbrella and a deckchair can start from 50 cents for a day, while a sunbed can cost around Lm1.25.

Government sources said it has been a long-standing policy that beach lidos were given an area of about 60 feet by 100 feet where they could set up sunbeds and umbrellas.

"The government marks the area with tags, but once we turn our backs, this area suddenly becomes bigger. Admittedly it's hard to control the situation, unless you have enforcement officers continually on site to ensure everyone sticks to their area," the sources said.

"Each summer this problem crops up. Very often a war rages between lido owners as they fight over who gets the best area of the beach.

"Sadly we are indisciplined as a society and no matter how often we tag the area, accompanied with police, the situation is back to square one once we leave," the sources said.

Alternattiva Demokratika too has expressed disapproval at the way beaches were being taken over by certain beach establishments which, it said, had literally occupied most of the space available for the public.

It called on the authorities to ensure that the situation was regularised so that while such services were available for those willing to pay, the rights of those who wanted to enjoy the beach without paying were safeguarded.

"Till recently, swimming and sun bathing were one of the few sources of recreation for the entire family which were completely free of charge," AD said.

"Unfortunately, this is no longer the case because those who cannot afford to pay are finding the best places of the beach already occupied by rows of sunbeds," it said.

A couple of families from Mellieha echoed AD's sentiments and said they had once tried to set up their own umbrella in Ghadira, and they were stopped from doing so.

"A man from one of these lidos told us that if we wanted to stay on that patch we had to rent an umbrella from his lido," they said.

"This is absolutely unfair. The beach is public land and we should not have to pay

However, it seems that this is not always the case because a couple of beach lidos in Ghadira have no problem if individuals set up their own umbrella in their area.

A Maltese family who were at Ghadira yesterday said the Framon Lido had been extremely helpful and the lido employees had even helped them dig up a hole to safely position their umbrella.

"The employees were so nice that we opted to rent a sunbed. The service should be there, but if the public doesn't want it they should not suffer any consequences," they said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Maxima Lido in Ghadira said they had no problem if people wanted to set up their own personal umbrella next to theirs.

"The beach is not our property and we are only here to give a service. What I do have to say, is that while people complain about us taking over the beach, we are the ones everyone looks for when they need to use the toilet," the woman said.

"The closest public toilet is very far away and everyone comes here to use our toilet - we never complain, even if they don't rent an umbrella from us," she said.