Captain Morgan threatens layoffs

The operators of Captain Morgan cruises yesterday said that if the Malta Environment and Planning Authority went ahead and demolished the quays where pleasure cruise boats berth on Comino, the livelihood of their 80 employees would be jeopardised.

Speaking at a news conference at the Fortina Hotel at Tigné Point in Sliema, Michael Zammit Tabona, managing director of Captain Morgan Cruises, said that on Friday a contractor commissioned by MEPA, assisted by members of the Administrative Law Enforcement, had pulled down three berths built by a pleasure boat company (not Captain Morgan).

Mr Zammit Tabona said his firm had been informed by someone in Gozo - he did not mention the name of that "someone" - that the berths used by Captain Morgan would be demolished shortly.

However, when contacted, Stephen Farrugia, MEPA assistant director, Development Services, said that the quay that was demolished at Comino had been built by the firm Alliance Cruises about a year ago.

"We had caught employees of this firm red-handed building the quay and we had asked them to stop. They decided to ignore the order. About a year ago, the then Planning Authority had issued a stop and enforcement notice to the cruise company which the company did not agree with.

"This left us with no other option but to demolish the quay after the owner of the land, which is the Lands Department, agreed that the quay should be removed," Mr Farrugia said.

During the news conference, Mr Zammit Tabona said that he could not understand how MEPA could resort to such action right in the middle of the tourist season, particularly when things were not going so well in the industry.

Reacting to these comments, Mr Farrugia said that removing illegal structures was a question of logistics. The contractor and the ALE personnel could do this job now and August was the right time of the year to carry such operations from the sea.

"As far as I know, there are no other stop and enforcement orders on quays at Comino but this does not mean that we would not be looking to see whether there are other structures that were built illegally.

"The bottom line was that we will be going for anything that was built illegally, even if it was built by the government after 1988. Non-government environment societies have been clamouring for the removal of illegally built quays," Mr Farrugia said.

The news conference at the Fortina Hotel was addressed also by retired Col Raymond Cutajar, who said that he was in charge of the building of the quays at Comino about 20 years ago and which had since been used by Captain Morgan cruises.

He said that the quays used by Captain Morgan had been built to make it possible for Armed Forces of Malta patrol boats to berth at Comino to ferry accident victims out of the island.