The government will not commit to the same brand of no-nonsense action on the Armier boathouse community as it had taken recently to clear the caravan site in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.
Over the past weeks, the Land Department launched a veritable crusade against the illegal encroachment of public land that saw caravans and boathouses demolished in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, street furniture removed from Marsaxlokk and other localities and a two-week notice slapped on squatters who have taken over the rundown former British Services barracks at Ġħajn Tuffieħa.
When asked whether the controversial Armier seaside squatter village was on the eviction agenda, the government’s response was not as decisive.
The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said it was waiting for the views of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on the development proposal submitted by the Armier boathouse community back in 2005.
The boathouse owners, in fact, had set up a company, Armier Developments Ltd, and submitted an application to redevelop the shanty town into organised clusters of beach houses.
The government had first proposed a similar plan in 2001, which was incorporated into the Marfa Action Plan. However, following a public outcry, the project was placed on the backburner until 2005 when the boat owners filed their own plans.
Mepa is reviewing the permit application but, in the meantime, the boathouses are on public land, much like the Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq caravans have.
When asked about this, a spokesman for the Government Property Division (GDP) echoed the OPM’s comment almost word for word, saying that "with regard to the case of Armier, GPD has asked for Mepa’s views on the compatibility of the planning applications submitted by Armier Development Ltd with its policies and is currently awaiting a reply".
The president of Armier Developments Ltd, Tarcisio Barbara, said the boathouse owners were in the dark on the status of the application.
Asked whether he felt that approval was a done deal, Mr Barbara said: "We have always done everything as Mepa and the government demanded," adding that he expects the government to honour the pre-election agreement somehow even if Mepa puts the brakes on the proposed development.
Both before the 2003 and the 2007 elections, the boathouse owners had reached informal agreements with both the government and the opposition in a bid to guarantee their future at Armier.
"These promises have been made many times, not just before the last election, by both the government and the opposition. Especially with regard to boathouses built before 1992, there are various agreements in writing," Mr Barbara said.
Mepa confirmed that it was reviewing the applications, adding that it was still drawing up its assessment.
The site had hit the headlines in 1991 when boathouse owners had strongly resisted the police and army personnel who tried to demolish their summertime abodes on grounds that they were illegal.
The project presented by the boathouse owners in 2005 proposed to redevelop the shanty town into 1,500 boathouses, a third of which (500) being allocated to people who do not at present own a boathouse there.