Wednesday, 1st October 2008
Disgruntled caravan owners demand alternative site
Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq: The picture says a thousand words. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi
Caravan owners who were ordered to leave Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq by today are signing a petition requesting the authorities to provide them with an alternative site.
The decision to sign the petition was taken yesterday evening during a meeting called on site by the Safari Camping Club after the Government Property Division (GPD) served over 100 caravan owners with a notice giving them 48 hours to remove their mobile homes from Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.
The GPD told the caravan owners they are not entitled to stay on the land they were occupying as it is not designated as a caravan site and they do not hold the necessary permits.
Safari Club secretary Athilio Montebello said the caravan owners were disappointed at the manner in which they had been slapped with the notices and given such a short deadline to leave.
The club frequently corresponded with the authorities so it was disappointing that there had been no advance warning about the action that came "like a bolt out of the blue".
The club will be meeting the Parliamentary Secretary for Lands, Jason Azzopardi this month, he said, adding that yesterday the club sent an email to the Prime Minister asking him to clarify the situation and explain why the decision had been so sudden.
Mr Montebello explained that caravan owners had been going to the area in question for the past 20 years or so. Previous governments had started processes to convert the area into an official caravan site but plans were not finalised.
Mr Montebello said that according to the club statute, its members were to have mobile caravans equipped with the necessary facilities. Unfortunately, he agreed, there had been a lot of abuse in the Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq area, with people building permanent structures such as rubble walls and tiling the areas in front of their caravan. This cast a bad light on all campers, Mr Montebello said, condemning such illegal actions and adding that the club could not control such abuses as it had no authority to do so.
As the caravan owners gathered for the meeting many voiced their anger at the sudden enforcement action. Some pointed out the electricity sub station and toilets and showers built by the government for the campers adding that this could not lead them to suspect they were there illegally.
Clearly upset by the notices, attached on each caravan, owners stressed that this was their only pastime. One woman, a pensioner, said she did not afford renting an apartment in summer and her caravan was her only source of recreation.
A spokesman for the GPD insisted that the area is not a caravan site, adding that a stop and enforcement notice had already been issued by the planning authority as none of the structures on the site has the required permits.
"With this enforcement notice, the government is giving back to the public yet another area. It is the government's policy to render back to the public what is theirs by right," the spokesman said.
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Comments
I do not think that anyone who contributed to these comments is against you or any other Caravan Club having an 'orderely' seasonal summer site to enjoy your pastime / holidays or whatever.
However as you admit the site was abused as can easily be seen by the photograph published on The Times and the area had been turned into a shanty town as there is no other word to decribe it.
You say that your association is a responsible one, why then did you not report the abuse of to the authorities as a bona fide association would have done !
Now you are paying the price, for outstaying your welcome from a couple of months to all year round, and as an association you did not stand up to those who raped and abused the site !!!
You were a golden opportunity to practice your hobby on a very beautiful site, however the site was abused big time as have been other sites in the north of the Island, and the Government is right to call it a day!
At the Bahar ic-Caghaq Caravan Site there was no power and water supply at the individual caravans but at the centralised public toilets and showers. Members of the general public who were having a barbeque on the beach also benefitted from our toilet facilities.They also benefitted from the skips which we commission for our rubbish disposal. We transported our water from home or commissioned a water supplier to replenish our water tanks. As regards to electricity supply we used either photovoltiac panels or small generating sets.
There were several comments about us not paying any rent for the land that we occupied for several years. It was no fault of us but the fault of past authorities who could have easily imposed an annual fee from our members
As a responsible authority our Club regularly applied, on an annual basis, for a permit to use the Bahar ic-Caghaq site two months before the summer camping season starts in May. We used to apply for a permit to camp from the beginning of May up to mid September. Generally the Lands Department used to issue a permit with the imposition of certain conditions such as keeping the area clean and accessible to the public. On occasions we only received an acknowledgement to our application but we never received a no as an answer. Up to 5 years ago all our members used to comply with the permit conditions, such as removing the caravan by mid September but only recently did the habit of leaving the caravan all year round become so widespread. The Authorities could have easily issued a warning to our Club's Committee to stop the practice, but no one intervened.
Do you want one in Malta?
you are squatters whether you like it or not. You don't own the land. You never paid for it. It is simply not for sale. And if any politician gave in to your demands, demands which you had no right to make, they were wrong to do so. Thank G-d such wrongs are now being made right. That land belongs to the public and by what stretch of the imagination do you think you should have a right to use it to the detriment of the rest of us. Enough already. If anything you should all be given a very very large bill for all the time you have occupied land and for any damage caused. So just go away and thank your lucky stars for having got away with so much for so long.
Squatters at Bahar ic- Caghaq, Armier and other localities know very well that they do not posses any legal tiltle to occupy public land ,much less to build illegaly on it. That is why this public outrage against their abusive actions. PS Jason Azzopardi in a TV news interview rightly dismissed past malpractices by successive political adminsitrations and public entities stating that such malpractices do not give sqautters any rights beyond the rule of law. It is so simple
I hate to get involved in politics, BUT we now know that Hon Jason Azzopardi (PN) can speak with the ex Hon Michael Falzon (PN) and they can then consult the ex Hon Michael Refalo (PN) and between them they can come to a conclusion as to why they are now not just evicting the caravans, but also the shacks, including the one's who have been put up for sale!,
We also wonder who sanctioned the Electricity?
:-)))) Let us give it some time and read the amazing news :-))))
@Brian Calleja
Tell us more!
Did you pay for water and electricity used, or it was considered to be used by public in public place?
When Dr.Michael Falzon officially opened the caravan site with one sample, was that sample similar to those on the picture we are looking at?
I can think of at least one politician who we can ask if this site is being cleared to be turned into a Disco!
I also would like to say that for all the words i said we have all the documents and photos needed to prove who is lying.
I appreciate that at law, providing a water and electricity supply does not translate into title of the site, on the other hand if we knew that these caravans / shacks are sited illegally, how do you then explain that a Government Department (the administrators who we elect to administer the affairs of the country wihout fear or favour) assisted these supposedly mobile caravan owners to obtain utilities? by doing so, is one not condoning their actions?
Allow me to be a bit blunt, somewhere along the line, be it a politician, party activist or someone at Enemalta has assisted / sanctioned utlities on an illegal site.
If you have ever had to go through the application process to apply for W & E services for a residence where you even have to provide site photogragphs aswell as a host of other legal documentation to prove that the site is legal, therefore it does not take a genuis to realise that the site is illegal!
So why sanction it?
Let her write a book "How to cheat Government for 20 years".
With such bestseller she will afford to rent a summer apartment for recreation.
Agreed. The Enemalta explanations are required. If no person of caravans paid those electricity and water bills, this means that TAXPAYERS were paying them. In such case I would strongly suggest that costs of electricity and water, used since such service was provided, would be collected from the occupants and returned to the government to be used where our taxes were supposed to be used. It is not only question WHO SIGNED the petition to provide water and electricity, it is more question of WHO PAID for all this during the years.
@All
It is a pleasant thought that our Government would decide to clear the coastline to build the decent caravan parking for really mobile caravans for short term stay. But...while the ideal picture of it is pleasing my fantasy, some experience is telling me that clearing the coastline at one forceful move could have been dictated by some permit for building 'whatever' has been recently issued by MEPA on the place of those caravans...Anyone heard about? New disco? Hotel? Golf Pool? Block of apartments?
Who are these SQUATTERS? Are they Gypsies? What a disgrace for Malta to allow such lawless squatters, gypsies or not, to just simply claim a plot and build a shelter on it on prime vacation land!!! Watch the illegals creating their own ghetto-by-the Mediterranean, complete with their own flag! See what happened in Italy? Wake up Malta. Save the Islands from becoming a third world ghetto! What? She can't afford "to rent a summer apartment"? - UNBELIEVABLE!
I also do not afford to buy a Lamborghini, but that does not give me the right to steal one either, even were it be my only recreation!!! Stay at home, and next time you want to go to the sea catch a bus!
I do not think that it will be so difficult for Hon Austin Gatt the Minister responsible for Enemalta to try and find out why and who by these installations have been authorised by !
I bet that those files will tell a story,
I also realise that someone who was in very senior position at the time, would have been an accomplice in this babuljata!
Let us now hope that Enemalta archives are very well secure..............and fire resistant.
And who was in government for the last 20 years except for a short 22-month period?
The government should clear these squatters out and take them to court to recoup the cost of cleaning up the area and restoring it to its natural state!
Electricity/showers/toilets/drains were built by authorities not for those few people who occupied that public land for ages, but for all of us who should have come there camping for a day or a week.
Opinion of those occupants that electricity and showers were provided solely for them is highly mistaken...unless...they were receiving electricity and water bills. Were they?
But the authorities have been grossly negligent and incompetent to have allowed this eyesore to fester for 20 or so years. It was not as if they were not in full public view.
One wonders how MEPA spends so much money on "ensuring" compliance, even utilising aerial photography and yet it is only now that these illegal structures are discovered.
But, you have to give it to these caravan owners. Justifying themselves because it is their only form of recreation. The fact that it also happens to be against the law does not dawn on them.
Can you imagine that sort of defence in court? "But your honour, shooting heroin is my only form of recreation." Or "Touching up little children is my only form of recreation." No, I don't think it will stand the test.
What a good excuse to occupy public land. These people have no shame. Like a reader wrote yesterday if you try to have a stroll on the Bahar IC Caghaq front these people throw you out saying it is private property. !!
Remove them the sooner the Better !!
Also Caravans like Speedboats should not be allowed to be parked in the streets. They should put them away in a garage and if they don't have one put them in a compound.
If one cannot afford to rent an apartment in summer, then this does not automatically translate into a right to occupy public property. Unfortunately, this has been the case in many areas and one should not forget Armier.
Oh, and seeing the picture, I was of the impression that caravans have wheels...
Or should we all take up some public land close to the sea such as Exiles or Qui-Si-Sana and call it our summer home!
How can these people even consider demanding something when they are nothing but squatters?
However, what's good for the goose, is good for the gander, and all illegally built shanty towns ( caravan sites indeed!), should be bulldozed, and the areas encroached upon, rehabilitated. This, as is so often mentioned, would, and should, include ALL places where such eyesores have taken hold, including Mellieha bay, Armier bay, and St Thomas bay, amongst others.
The people in power should realise that a firm stance with these people is what the general populace needs, or rather, expects, from them. Taxpayers' money should not be wasted on mollifying the feelings of squatters, providing them with essential services etc, and rather, spent on getting rid of all encroachers, without exception and any further delay.
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Well done Dr Jason Azzopardi. Keep up the good work.
In Maltese they say 'Mis subgha jiehdu l'id!'
It is clear proof that some people will not only occupy public land in one of the most idyllic sites on the Island,
but as it is proven, some will soon turn it into a third world shunty town..................
and when finally action is taken to clear the mess, then they have the cheek to start petitions,
in the UK they are known as gypsies
So please Mr Government remove ALL illegal sites be it in Bahar ic-caghaq, Armier, Ghadira or elsewhere
Public land is for the public enjoyment and public use. Most of these "squatters" add insult to injury when they shoosh you off "their land" if you , even nicely, demand a share of that use.
if these people want a caravan site, proper caravan sites should be built, but a caravan means it is movable and not that a container, or a stone room is built and left there for eterity.