'Rooms' with a view

The fate of the caravans at Little Armier bay hinges on whether they can be considered as "rooms" included in an agreement reached with the government and boathouse owners in the area.

Mellieħa mayor Robert Cutajar does not believe the caravans can be called rooms. He is, however, seeking advice from "government entities" involved in the agreement before exercising the local council's authority to remove the caravans on the strength of a recent by-law.

Tarcisio Barbara, on behalf of the caravan owners, is insisting that for all intents and purposes the vehicles are indeed rooms.

He is arguing that just like the boathouses, they have been a permanent fixture in the area for more than 20 years, so much so they no longer have wheels and were even supplied with water and electricity by the government.

Questions were sent to the Land Department to clarify the issue but no replies were received by the time of going to print.

Earlier this month the Mellieħa local council served 12 caravan owners with notices informing them they had to leave the area they have been occupying illegally for years.

The notices were sent on the strength of the new by-law that led to the removal of another 10 caravans that had turned up in the Armier area this summer, Mr Cutajar said.

He stressed that the issue of removing the "permanent" 12 caravans, was separate from the boathouse issue over which the council had no jurisdiction.

Ever since a botched attempt by the government to demolish the illegal boathouses in 1991, the issue has resurfaced at every election with boathouse owners reaching agreements with government and opposition on ways to regularise their position.

In 2005, the company Armier Development Limited was set up on the government's request. The company submitted a development application to turn the illegal shanty town into an organised cluster of beach houses, under the agreement with the government. This is still pending.

In 2008, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi sent a letter in which he wrote that "those rooms that were built before 1992 will not be demolished" and that the government was committed to take any legal steps "to ensure that the occupants' interests are safeguarded".

Mr Barbara said the letter was sent to owners of boathouses and caravans that had been in Armier since before 1992, when the planning authority was set up. This meant caravan owners were protected through this political commitment.

However, Mr Cutajar said that the agreement spoke about built rooms, something which the caravans were not.

Having said that, he reiterated he was willing to offer caravan owners an alternative site, 300 metres away, until September.

Last week caravan owners said they were not satisfied with a temporary solution and were only ready to move if this applied to the boathouse owners. They demanded that, if moved, they should be provided with the water and electricity facilities they had now.

Four environmental NGOs voiced objections to these demands and called on political parties and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to stop such abusive land seizures.