Danish Village still awaiting permit for Lm2m expansion

An application by the Mellieha Holiday Centre, better known as the Danish Village, for a Lm2 million expansion project is still pending before the Malta Environment and Planning Authority more than a year since it was submitted.

Benny Overgaard, president of Dansk Folke Ferie, the foundation which runs the centre, said in an interview yesterday the foundation would really like to receive development permission as a 25th anniversary gift. The Mellieha centre was inaugurated 25 years ago today.

He said the proposed development would include 25 luxury bungalows, each with its own private pool and jacuzzi, a common indoor pool and conference facilities. The proposed facilities would be able to take up to 200 people.

The foundation hoped it would obtain the development permit as it would enable it to venture into the business market and bring over seminars and congresses. The application was filed in April 2003.

Mr Overgaard, in Malta for the anniversary celebrations, said the expansion would enable the foundation, which currently brought more than 15,000 Danish tourists to Malta every year, to increase the arrival figures by another 5,000.

He pointed out that 60 per cent of the centre's visitors were repeat guests and it had a yearly occupation rate of nearly 90 per cent.

Whenever the centre had vacancies, it also opened its bungalows to Maltese visitors.

The centre has some permanent residents too - a colony of about 100 cats. The centre works with Danish and Maltese cat associations and spends Lm5,000 a year on dry cat food. The cats were neutered and a vet looks after them regularly. They are left to roam free all over the centre.

"They are only not allowed in the bungalows and they know it. Ours are the healthiest cats on the island and our centre is rat free," Mr Overgaard said.

The centre has an underground tunnel linking it to the beach and for the past eight years it has been requesting a beach concession which it intended to keep completely accessible to the public.

"We want the integration between our visitors and the Maltese public to continue. Beach concessions have been given to our neighbours on both sides, who both came after us, but not to us in spite of several requests."

All areas of the centre are accessible to visitors, including the supermarket, restaurants, bar, internet café and playground.

Besides the Mellieha Holiday Centre, Dansk Folke Ferie owns 11 centres in Denmark, a centre in Tenerife and another in Norway.

It believes it is now the time to invest and besides its expansion plans for Malta it also wants to expand its Tenerife village and open another in Cyprus, another new member of the European Union.

"But we would really like our Malta expansion to take place. We have the grounds, we have the money, we have good relations with the Maltese authorities, we have good plans, we want our development to fit with nature. So why not?"

The Mellieha Holiday Centre, which has 150 bungalows each sleeping a maximum of six persons, was built according to the plans of world famous architect Hans Munk Hansen.

The centre was very unique in the sense that it fitted in with nature and the surrounding environment and it was not an eyesore which could be seen from all over the place, Mr Overgaard said. "We want to continue expanding in this way."

He said the centre had been the first on the island to build a sewage plant in the 1980s and the first to install a commercially run solar energy plant which is used to heat its outdoor pool. This was installed in 1987.

Mr Overgaard said he fell in love with Malta the first time he visited and his experience was similar to that of other Danes "who come to this friendly place".

"I was very surprised at the friendliness and hospitality of the Maltese. The country is different from all the other places I have been to.

"Moreover, the island has a fantastic history and so many periods are covered in such a small place. It make one want to keep coming back as there are always new things to discover."

The museums were interesting and pricing in Malta was fair - not expensive and not cheap, he added.

Mr Overgaard's complaint was about the state of local roads. "They could do with a facelift," he said.

Another thing he would appreciate is a cleaner country. "There is not yet the culture in Malta for people to pick up bits of paper from the street and throw them in bins. People enjoying themselves at barbeques in the evenings should also clean up, leaving the place nice for others."

Established by Danish unions in 1938, Dansk Folke Ferie set up its Malta centre as its first centre outside Denmark after president Ivan Barrington visited the island... and fell in love with it.

Most of the visitors in summer are families with children. In winter pensioners come for long stays ranging from two to six months. The centre is fully accessible to people with disabilities.

Three plane loads of visitors arrive each week with the average length of stay in summer being one week.

Because of the Danish Village, Malta was now a household name in Denmark, together with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and whenever someone mentioned the country, the Mellieha Holiday Centre was recalled, he said.

"There is great sympathy for Malta in Denmark. We are happy that the country has decided to join the EU. Like the Maltese, the Danes are half in favour of Denmark's membership and half against, so there is that similarity. We believe that Malta can be a good partner."