Video: Government workers start removing Magic Kiosk

It is good and it was time to remove that eye sore out of the way. And besides it was a place were it was the land of the people, hope that the government will take more measures to remove places like the magic kiosk.Thanks alot

This momentum is to be kept until it reaches Armier, Gnejna, St Thomas bay and every single property which belongs to all of us and not to the Govt. I cannot understand how people like many of those posting their comments try to find any kind of excuses to defend such illegalities and worse try to shift the blame on the authorities.

I am writing on behalf of Peppi's Kiosk Company Ltd which runs the commercial establishment styled Peppi's Restaurant, on Tower Road, Sliema.

With reference to certain comments that appeared in this forum, please note that the running of the same is covered by all permits and that the land in question is legally occupied.

It was a great idea to take that eyesore off that splendid square! In fact that block of orange concrete behind what was the Magic Kiosk really embellishes the square now!!!! Why don't you just say you didn't want a labour supporter to have that kiosk!

Although i agree with govt move, here things are beyond mainstream politics.

Questions : What about tigne and Manoel Island. Is it justified to have tigne, such a nice place and a big open space more bigger than that area turned into a concrete jungle now?

Please do play fair....... i hate watching ipok**** teleserials

WELL DONE.

One less boss dictating and accumulating money from our public land.

The boathouses may be a thorn for the Minister in case they are mentioned. Their owners own a good set of accumulated promises which add up every five years!

Why were the Minister and PS present there? They weren't present when government officials were removing illegal tenants from Bahar Ic-Caghak, Ghajn Tuffieha Barracks, Fort Bingemma at Dwejra, and Fort St. Elmo. Perhaps this was a publicity campaign on the part of Minister Pullicino? We all know that Pullicino lost all confidence from many Sliema residents, namely those from the Qui Si Sana area in the past years. Was this a way of gaining back his lost sheep from the area?

Can I also ask why the government didn't accept the Mr Pace's offer to demolish the aquarium-like building (yes it was ugly) and re-embellish the whole square at his (Mr Pace's) own expense?? Mr Pace voluntary offered to re-organise this and have the size of his kiosk drastically reduced at his own expense. The government opted for the aggressive and stubborn attitude.

Who will now operate the new kiosk? Will offers be made public? Will the new tenant have permits to place tables and chairs around the kiosk (yes of course he/she will)? What space will be taken by these chairs and tables? Will it be a repeat of Pjazza Regina in Valletta??

this is purely political revenge- its not the style that the former prime minister preached - it seems the party is asking for his pound of flesh
If it where not the case he would be busier dismantling illegal properties that made illegal entrepreneurs rich leaving the common citizen nowhere to breathe.
Come on dear george wake up and stop playing kids games

What about the illegal structures/boathouses etc in:
Gnejna
Mellieha
Beneath the Valletta bastions
Encroachment at ghadira (what happened to the blue flag status by the way)
RTO's and hunters hideouts all over the little countryside that left
Taking up of precious parking spaces by car dealers

need I go on ?

These things did not happen before the election period.

@ Julie Peace, what about the history, missed memories, and much more for Maltese population? These are much more important than a kiosk!

@ Vincent Pace, I totally agree with you!

Now the Bonellos can have back the property which was arrogantly grasped from their hands for so many years. (we all know by whom) Some people think it's fine if one party takes away private property to give it to his "friends", (and not for public use) but it is bad if the other party returns the same property to its rightful owners. 2 weights & 2 measures. What's good for the goose......

And by the way, how about making PUBLIC use of the Australia Hall? It could surely be used for a multitude of public purposes instead of just rotting away, suffering vandalism, and gathering piles of rubbish and syringes. Or do its present owners intend to finance themselves the PROFESSIONAL restoration it deserves? Well now they do have their own Headquarters.

@Ms Peace
If your idea of visiting Malta is to spend your time at the magic Kiosk, then I'm afraid you should really be in Spain on the Costa del Sol. I suggest you try and improve your taste in restaurants as well. Unless you belong to the ''fish and chip'' brigade of-course.

I will miss the Magic Kiosk, I liked it and used to eat there whenever we visited Sliema....but of course...we must give the public squares back to the "public".....to do what with? Look at an empty space. I am almost dreading my return to Malta next month, all my favourite cafes/restaurants may well be gone...

This 'eye-sore' which many of you are talking about, paid the bills for a number of families who were employees at Magic Kiosk...and now?? Has anyone thought about them? No way as no one would have written and thanked the minister of PS for this. After all, if he was a huge contributor, no one would have dared to touch anything which was built illegally.

Do not worry, according to the proposed project there will be a small kiosk which by time will grow back but it will be as usual some friends of friends...time will tell.

I dare this government to take such actions during the months of the election campaign...if it really believes that the land should be given back to the people, then we shall see. Unfortunately during that time there will be a go slow or do nothing policy.

What about the boathouses in Armier, Gnejna, Ghadira and those under the Valletta Bastions?

Replace it with a tent village for illegals immigrants. We will see the reaction of the people of Sliema. What's good for Marsa is good for Sliema.
Y.Cachia: Your husband will now have to compete with illegal immigrants for work. I feel for you.

Excellent. I am sure that the owners will be made to bear the cost of the intervention. Keep up the good job. Let us clean our country of all illegal structures!!

It was so nice going to sliema and seeing magic kiosk coming tumbling down. It makes all those who remember boycott happy. However, we are still waiting for armier , mellieha and gnejna to dissappear.

MEPA is strong with the weak and weak with the strong.
Remember Ċaqnu building his hotel on public land and instead of pulling down the building he got the land for a mere pittance when compared with the contemporary price of land especially for a hotel?
Where were you MEPA?
Restructuring MEPA my foot!

Very interesting! But it seems that one can still appropriate property belonging to the Joint-Office and built apartments for business on it, as is happening in Tower Road,San Lawrenz, despite that all the authorities including the Prime Minister who is directly responsible for MEPA have long been informed about it! Is this a colour issue again perhaps?

All those who are against Magic Kiosk...Is any one of you offering a job for my husband?...Especially to George Pullicino and Jason Azzopardi

Please now go and dismantle eyesores on the sandy beaches. The countrysides from all fridges and tanks and replace them with the supposed rubble wall. Clear the valleys and take care of Chadwick lakes. Also the eyesore we have in Rabat near the Roman Villa. Rearrange the road from Qormi to the New Coca Cola Factory with a farm built near the road that fills the road with animal drainage. Then we can say that you business.

How about removing the two containers in front of the Kooperattiva tas-Sajd in Marsaxlokk? They are not only an eyesore but downright dangerous being placed on either side of the road. I know that the Local Council has tried in vain to have them removed. What is holding up their removal? They are occupying public property.

Well done to who! Yes perhaps it was illegal, but how many of you are knowledgeable of what is happening in MEPA?. The Enforcement officers who are public officials see every sort of illegal structure around the island and who do not proceed amongst anyone except if he is weak.
Please take the plunge to attend a DCC board meeting and observe obscene decisions taking place. Do you know that you cannot put a wooden shade on the roof of one's home but apparently you can build a number of rooms on an old building in Valletta? Do you know that for MEPA shading using iron pipes and that green material is not an eyesore for the maltese skyline, but a clean wooden gazebo is not acceptable as this is not aesthetically acceptable?
Do you also know that if someone collaborates with the enforcement officers (My case), his neighbour can keep the illegal structure because the enforcement officer is not duty bound to report and take action against him because an enforcement notice is not issued on the person who collaborates?

Well people, do not be funny!! there is a giant who is manipulating us without us being aware!!!

I have a feeling that Armier will not be touched.... and I have said this before.

@Marco Ellul

Who's gonna tell you? Not even Mepa knows.

Let us hope that the allocation of the site in St Anne Square will be done in a transparent manner.

I urge P S Jason Azzopardi to publish the details of the tenders of all kiosks along the Sliema /St Julians promenade so that we will know when to expect a similar operation for these eyesores.

Let us give the promenade back to the Citizen

why not Armier and Gnejna ? too many votes there ?

Well Done Dr. Jason Azzopardi - you're doing an invaluable job!!! Give us what's ours...

@ j. meilak

all in good time....aghti ftit cans....! ;) be thankful that action has started to be taken. quite an amount of progress has already been made so far (considering how slow-paced things tend to be in malta...)

My oh my! Three years taken to dimantle a MAGIC KIOSK that was visible to all!!
How long would it take to dismantle all illegal or expired leases?
The important thing is that the authorities can say that we are beginning to act.
And some gullible PN supporters are once more taken for a ride.

Hopefully ALL illegal kiosks, etc. aorund Malta, will also be removed so that people will believe that government really means business and that justice is being done.

What is wrong with people in this country! A horrible eyesore such as magic kiosk is dismantled and instead of people saying "prosit" to whichever administration removed it (it's irrelevant) we grumble about other illeagal structures that are still standing. Isn't it great that at least this one is being removed?? You have to start from somewhere. Also to all those who said that the poor staff are out of a job, what kind of reasoning is that if the kiosk shouldn't be there in the first place??

there goes the only spot in sliema where one could sit at leisure most times of day and enjoy a decent meal. Sliema's product mix has certainly lost a component. yet of course this is not a matter of market mix ...

Decades ago a horrendous block of appartments was built down by a northern bay. It is understood that it was not properly authorised. Years later a revision was made and the building was duly ratified to the relief of the owners (even if they never seemed too preoccupied with the situation). This week, a block close by has been completed in shell form, now surely covered by relative permits based on parameters revised not by god but by men as a further monstrosity down the road progresses at a light pace,...

yet comparisions are odious, or are they?

@ Keith Aquilina: If this happened before the election people like you would still cry "opportunism" methinks.
"Why is the Magic Kiosk being dismantled now?" -- Why not?

I recommend that the government tell sculptor Paul Vella Critien to make another monument like the one he made at Luqa, (which has become a tourist attraction worldwide) and place it in the middle of the square.

Why these things happen after an election and not in the months preceding it ? Isn't this arrogance? Isn't this showing us how politicians just need us for their votes. Before the election we were living in heaven...now after the election the situation is totally different. Isn't this showing that politicians communicate with us only for their votes? Why is the Magic Kiosk being dismantled now? Why are other buildings not dismantled in other places?

who is footing the bill for this?

@ MR PAUL MICALLEF + Not P CRITIEN

WELL SAID. People in this country seem to think only in BLUE OR RED. Can not agree more with you.

Whoever it is, justice has to be done for the sake of the people. After all the people are supreme. It is nice to see some discipline taking place but again this has to be done with everybody or else ........? Now, as a taxpayer, I will be looking in the media to see how much this cost us and that the bill has been sent to the owner and that he will be made to pay it, of course. Or are we going to stop here and blow the trumpet?

If he was a P.N supporter would you have said the comments that where posted here,by some insencitve people?? for god sake,,,,, he earned a living for himself and for the workers that worked there and he provided them with a job.
So now all of those companies that do not pay the rightfull amount of tax,, that do not pay water bills and electric, and so on should they be dismantled???.
Land was aquired under shady circumstances??? are you speaking about half of MALTA..??
What about land that was stolen from you and me under this administration??? what about every piece of coast closed to us so that we can not take our families, because some developer friend of a friend gave it to him with a lease of a 100 years????

Well done!!

OK what about the kiosks at City Gate - That place is like a war zone.
Will the Govt. have the guts to ask those people to leave.......hahahahah

Well done, on regaining another public site.

Dismantling ?? Itis KISSER U FARRAK.

I can't understand why this job is being done by Government workers... why should tax payers pay to dismantle an illegal structure?

Oh poor Magic Kiosk.. was it a real eyesore? Really? Is it possible? Was it so spottable? So the other kiosks scattered arounds Sliema, Valletta and other places are not an eyesore?

So ok Guys, we have the whole Sliema back to its pristine condition :) LOLOL Who are you trying to fool Dear government?

Well done to PS Jason Azzopardi for taking action, that will result in further area the public will enjoy.

Do any of you out there know the history behind this kiosk? The land was acquired under very shady circumstances with political ties. Justice is being done

Justice is only made when all the illegal buildings, huts, etc are removed not when 20 breadwinners are finishing without a job. When and if huts are removed it is only the pass time of the owner that suffers, nobody earns a living from a hut.

It's always great when public spaces are given back to their rightful owners - the public - but the law should apply to everyone, irrespective of who the perpetrator of the illegality is. That should include all public land taken over by private individuals for their personal enjoyment (boathouses, front gardens illegally extended onto the pavements etc.) but it should also apply to land taken over by cowboy-entrepreneurs who feel it's their right to steal public land and make money out of that land (anyone remember the Solemar Hotel in Marfa, illegally built on public land by the famous Caqnu?)

Prosit!!! DO NOT FORGET GNEJNA BOATHOUSES. THE MAJORITY ARE ILLEGAL

I hope that next summer Dr.Jason Azzopardi will take care of what's happening in our beaches: i.e. public beaches taken by various establishments/clubs with umbrellas and deck chairs.
Especially in Ghadira Bay.

The entrance to Valletta is a disgrace. Before embaring on elaborate projects costing millions, the Government should simply (yet seriously!) CLEAN UP the entrance. I hear tourists commenting on the filth at every corner of City Gate, starting with the shabby kiosks, the likes of which I have never seen in any country. Add to these the various vendors selling anything from cheap slippers to underwear! Then there are the bread vendors, discarding their crumbs beneath their own stalls, then proceeding to sell bread under a cloud of filthy pigeons. And the pavements at the bus terminus.....forget the EU, I heard one Englishman say recently, this is a third world country (with all due respect to the developing world). The list goes on and on. Action please, let's clean up the mess. Pity we common Maltese mortals have to put up with it on a daily basis, but I suggest diverting tourists to the magnificent road leading to Castille Place, when entering the city, until the Government takes this seriously.

In the Maltese language we have a saying that goes like this,'Ghal kull hatba hemm il-mannara. Justice is being done after decades of years where the then proprietors,the Bonello Bros were unceremoniously thrown out of the popular kiosk. Better late then never!

What is the removal of the Magic Kiosk going to do for Sliema? I agree that the Kiosk was somewhat of an eyesore, but then again, most of Sliema is an eyesore. Removing the Kiosk is not going to improve the overall look of Sliema. The horrible apartments which all manage to look different, but equally appalling, have done their damage to Sliema of old, and it's irreversible.

Sliema remains my favourite town in Malta, because I spent most of childhood growing up there, but I hate how ghastly looking structures have ruined what was once a lovely place. I completely understand that Sliema is one of the major business centres in Malta, however construction in the area was very poorly planned, and no regard was given to ensuring that buildings keep their overall outward designs standard, at least to a certain point and taking into consideration various limitations. In the end, what more can be expected of a country whose roads look, for the most part, like a particularly bad Ghanaian town street.

@Josephine Dalli

I don't think the biggest problem along the Strand is the buildings per se - you cannot expect all the buildings to be of the same height and width since they were built during different times and some are built on two or more plots of land. I don't see anything wrong with that. Although I admit that there are some very old ugly derelect buildings that need to be torn down.

The biggest problems are the promenade and the road. The paving of the promenade is not consisent (different patterns, different trees, different railings - it just looks plain messy), and the road is in a horrible state of disrepair and it also lacks proper road markings. I still don't know whether the road is a one or two lane!

Oh so now the government wants to rehabilitate parts of Sliema? so why in the last years it has given permission the destroy all the beauty of Sliema? Is there the private sector involved in this too? Dear Government to whom i voted,next step is to take off the eyesore of our capital city, unfortunately when tourists arrive there, first they see the yellow dirty buses, then a beautiful fountain which works 1% of the time,the very dirty kiosks (including a good number that frequent them) behind the kiosks you think you arrived to an African village and then after all that you find our beautiful fortifications, Dear Government please protect the beauty of our country rather than only making rich people richer. Thanks

I think it brings back memories but many more memories would be brought back if the traditional buildings of Sliema promenade would magically return!! By removing the Magic kiosk and those families who worked there and lived off it will not bring any sparkle to the concrete jungle.

WELL DONE TO MINISTER PULLICINO AND PS JASON AZZOPARDI

AN EYESORE HAS BEEN REMOVED AND NOW ST ANNE'S SQUARE IS BACK IN PUBLIC HANDS

PROSIT!

@P Critien

Have you noticed that the News Kiosk located there has been moved? It used to be closer to the Piazzetta, now it has been moved in front of the Chalet (or remains) blocking the view.

What happened here?

The owners of that kiosk are well known to bulldoze anyone who get in their way. Weak with the strong, strong with the weak? Something is not right here!

Vivo a Roma e sono a Malta ogni 2 mesi, e spaventoso vedere il ferry cosi disordinato di appartamenti alti, bassi, stretti, e larghi, senza un piano minimo di ordine!!!! magic Kiosk era il meno fastidioso. Grazie!!

While I'm happy this structure has been dismantled, I will dearly miss the place. I really hope the owner is able to reloacte somewhere along the strand.

@REllul: It's not an eyesore if you're inside the place and not looking at it from the outside! Hehe

Armier should be the next target with 'notice to evict' issued to everyone who has a building there in contravention of MEPA planning regulations, and/or no title to the land or whatever is required legally.
There should be no exceptions no matter who built, or now 'owns' these eyesore illegal structures - they do not own the land they are built on.

Well done.

Next:
remove huts beneath Mediterranean Conference Centre;
Remove Ghadira Green Huts;
Remove huts at Gharmier...
and last but not least the Kiosks at Valletta Terminus!!!

@ Anna Farrugia

I agree that the next eviction should take place in Armier.

The Law must be for all with no exception no matter who knows who

However I would like to ask those who have made the comments and those who have enforced this order "Did you ever eat at the Magic Kiosk" ?

If so, it is was not such a eye soar was it?

Some questions about all of this.
1. Why the works started at 6.00am?
2. How much does this whole operation cost?
3. Who has to pay for the cost?
4. As the Magic Kiosk was set up in the 1970s, would it be a tall order for the Governemnt to dismantle and bring down all those ILLEGAL buildings that sprouted up IN SLIEMA BEFORE MEPA WAS SET UP SOMETIME IN 1992?

Regulations and laws are applied to everyone but I have serious doubts about this.

Great job...

finally... agreed with mr farrugia and ms. farrugia . armier and hal farrug should be next.

Very well done for the justice made.
Now we need to see those huts just beneath the Mediterranean Conference Centre be removed also. While cruise liners are entering the Grand Harbor they will thing of the huts there are at Mumbai airport.

I believe that the legal notice refers to the construction works and not removal of aluminium works. Well done for the clearing of such an eyesore

Now that this eyesore is removed, it will expose the mess of a building of the Diesel store in St Anne Square. MEPA first issued a permit , then withdrew it. Subsequently you have these unfinished concrete columns in front of an old facade. Mepa should order their removal (perhaps at Govt expense, as Mepa was at fault)

Well done. This will bring back a couple of childhood memories :)

It is funny to see that they started dismantling the kiosk at 6am when there is a legal notice that prohibits works before 7am!!

Very well done. But I hope that what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Good work being done by the property division and MEPA. Finally the people of Malta are getting their way against those who trespass on public property. Now let's turn our attention to the environmental damage done at Hal Farrug.

FINALLY

Well done Resources Minister George Pullicino.
Now what about L'Armier?
How about removing the squatters please?

Now its time for the kiosks surrounding Valletta bus terminus

"....and another one bites the dust!"

Finally an eyesore will be removed. I hope something matching with its surroundings will be put up !

At long last.Another black page torn out .