Meeting with caravan owners not linked to removal, Azzopardi insists

The meeting scheduled for October 21 between the Parliamentary Secretary for Land, Jason Azzopardi, and the Safari Camping Club to discuss the caravan site at Baħar Iċ-Ċagħaq was not intended to postpone the removal of the structures from the site, Dr Azzopardi insisted yesterday.

The government last week gave caravan owners at Baħar Iċ-Ċagħaq 48 hours to remove their caravans from the site. Bulldozers and cranes showed up at the site on Friday morning and began carrying away caravans on trailers and clearing permanent structures and concrete platforms.

Dr Azzopardi noted yesterday that, in their comments about the issue, some caravan owners mistakenly gave the "implicit impression" that the government was going ahead with the removal action despite a meeting scheduled with the Safari Camping Club, representing caravan owners.

When initially approached by a member of the club, Dr Azzopardi explained, he was not told that he would be meeting the club itself but rather an honorary member of the club, Vince Perry, who originally requested the meeting on September 30. "He never wrote or said that he was writing on behalf of an association," Dr Azzopardi insisted.

He said it was only last Thursday that he was informed by Mr Perry that present for the meeting would also be the president and general secretary of the club. Dr Azzopardi said he had no problem whatsoever meeting with the Safari Camping Club to discuss the issue. However, he said the meeting was scheduled irrespective of the removal action planned for Friday morning and that he had made it clear that the meeting would in no way postpone the removal action.