Seized items to go under the hammer

The Government Property Division will today be auctioning some eight caravans which were confiscated for encroaching on public property, Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi said, yesterday.

Dr Azzopardi said another auction will be held on December 19, when the rest of the street furniture, machinery, equipment and other items seized for the same reason will be sold to the highest bidder.

To date, the division has taken enforcement action on more than 160 cases and has accumulated 1,040 objects that obstructed public land and property.

Dr Azzopardi said the division received dozens of reports and complaints every week, which are then thoroughly investigated by its five enforcement officers.

Besides this, he noted that the blogs and comments section of timesofmalta.com provided one of the major sources of information, which they tapped into before taking enforcement action.

The great interest generated from the online articles was one of the main reasons for yesterday's launch of a 24-hour, seven days a week freephone service to be used to report abuse of public property, even anonymously.

Freephone 1577 is being launched together with a website, www.1577.gov.mt, to inform the public on how to go about reporting abuse and what actually constitutes abuse of government land and property. The freephone is not to be used for enquiries or simply as a means of customer care; and those making use of the service must be sure they are reporting the abuse of public, not private, property, stressed Dr Azzopardi.

He announced that discussions were underway to regulate the laws on camping sites and facilities. He has also sent a memo to Cabinet to discuss the public rights of access to Fomm ir-Riħ.

Finally, Dr Azzopardi said that starting next week, he was making himself available to personally receive the public calls of those who wanted to lodge a complaint or make a suggestion to the division. The phone number and dates of availability will be announced shortly.