Kiosk owners say council notice 'illegal'

A number of kiosk owners have filed a judicial protest claiming that a notice issued by the Zabbar local council was not legally valid and, for that reason, they were not going to apply for a stall space for the forthcoming feast of Our Lady of Graces as requested in the notice.

The kiosk owners, who are members of the Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU, filed the protest in the First Hall of the Civil Court against the Zabbar council.

They explained that they were licensed to run kiosks during religious feasts and, for over 10 years, they had set up kiosks during the feast of Our Lady of Graces in Zabbar.

On July 26, the local council issued a notice saying that, between July 27 and August 9, it was accepting applications from those who wanted to set up their kiosks during the feast next month. The notice stated that, since this year the kiosks were going to be set up in Labour Street, the allocation of spaces was going to be drawn by lot in the presence of the public on August 17.

The owners explained that none of them had set up their kiosks in Labour Street before.

According to the local council regulations, if a venue for a religious feast was being changed, the council had to issue a public notification at least two months earlier.

In this case, the two-month clause had not been respected which meant that the local council's notification was illegal and null at law.

The owners informed the council that they were not going to apply to set up their kiosks, according to the July 26 notice, because the notice was not legally valid.