Silent campaign to prevent abuse of government property

Chairs, tables and pots placed outdoors at bars and restaurants in Birżebbuġa were confiscated on Saturday night and in Marsascala yesterday evening as part of the ongoing enforcement campaign launched by the Lands Department.

Street furniture, which included some 50 chairs, 11 tables and 18 flower pots, was seized from Birżebbuġa on Saturday after the owners ignored notices they had been served on Wednesday. Until going to press last night, the enforcement action in Marsascala, involving members of the Government Property Division and police officers, was still ongoing.

Edward Bonello, communications coordinator at the Parliamentary Secretariat for Revenues and Land, said a number of bar and restaurant owners were brazonly ignoring previous warnings in connection with illegal encroachment of public land. He said that, in addition to the confiscation of the encroaching furniture items, the Lands Department was seeking the revocation of the operating licences of the offending establishments.

Earlier in the day, illegal billboards along December 13 Road in Marsa were dismantled after the department won a court injunction against the billboard owners last week.

The company which owns the billboards - Active Enterprises Ltd - had filed a warrant of prohibitory injunction to prevent the department from removing the billboards but this was turned down by the court which ordered the removal of the boards by tomorrow. The court found that the billboards were on public property and did not have a Lands Department's permit.

The enforcement action is part of a silent campaign launched by the department to ensure that government property is not abused, government Property Division director general designate Paul Miruzzi told The Times.

The campaign started at the beginning of summer when department officials and the police intervened to physically remove illegal street furniture in Sliema, Marsaxlokk, Buġibba, Birżebbuġa as well as Xlendi and Marsalforn in Gozo.

Initially the department started out by serving establishments with a notice giving them 15 days to comply with their permits. "We tried to act civilly but practically no one took any notice, so we had to resort to harsher measures," Mr Miruzzi said.

Now a series of harsher measures are being implemented to ensure that the message is clear - "We mean business", he stressed.

Establishments found in breach of their encroachment permits have their permit revoked and are slapped with a €1,000 administrative fee, which is paid on application for a new permit. They also have to cover the costs of the enforcement operation, apart from having the illegal furniture confiscated. This is then sold by auction.