Clampdown on illegal structures outside Xemxija boathouses

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority is clamping down on the owners of legal boathouses who have erected additional structures on the foreshore without a permit at Shipwreck Promenade in Xemxija.

In enforcement orders issued last Thursday and put up on a number of garages, the defaulting owners were given two weeks to remove the structures and to restore the site to its original state.

Originally the garages, situated in a long row under the street, were used as boathouses, and many are still used as such. There are slipways to put boats to sea or pull them out.

But other garages, in particular some at the far end of the row, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be described as boathouses.

Walls have been built around some of the areas lying opposite garages, and the enclosures closed off by an iron gate blocking passage. Corrugated roofing has also been constructed on the façade above some of the doors.

In many cases, a concrete platform has been constructed opposite the garage and one of these was even laid with tiles.

In most cases, permanent galvanised pipe frames have been set up with the intention of putting up awnings during the summer. Television aerials adorn many of the garage façades.

A notice indicating the enforcement has been fixed by Mepa officials on the wall of a number of garages.