Landowners should affix ownership documents on gates and structures blocking access to the countryside, ramblers have demanded.
If you obeyed all the signs in this area then you would have to walk on the road all the time
“We want the Government to enforce a rule that would mean landowners have to place documentation on their gates, or have those gates removed,” Ramblers Association president Alex Vella said.
The association wants the documentation to include a reference number that could be checked online by disgruntled walkers who suspect that these makeshift structures have illegally blocked public footpaths.
Mr Vella and fellow rambler Sam Grech joined The Times at Dingli Cliffs to discuss the problems they faced when walking in the countryside.
Away from the road that snakes around the dramatic coastline, most of the land – much of it uncultivated – was blocked off by gates, walls and crude homemade signs prohibiting access.
Haphazard hunting hides and trapping platforms dotted the beauty spot in areas marked as out of bounds to the public.
Piles of unused building materials surrounded one cliff-edge hunting hide. Even a patch of bare ground next to the road had large limestone bricks and a sign to deter access.
“If you obeyed all the signs in this area then you would have walk on the road all the time,” Mr Vella said.
Mr Grech turned in the direction of the radar station and pointed at the hill in the foreground. “How can it be that someone owns that whole hill?” he wondered aloud.
“We don’t want to interfere with anyone’s business or their land; we just want to walk through these beautiful areas without being threatened,” Mr Grech said, adding that he understood some gates were needed to stop cars.
According to the ramblers, being threatened by supposed landowners was not uncommon in rural areas. However, there was no evidence of any harassment when The Times visited.
The association believes they should have access to footpaths that have been used by the public for centuries and were previously on land owned by the Knights of St John and the British.
The Government, by far the biggest landowner in Malta, rents out much of its land on agricultural leases. Some of those with leases say their families have lived on or worked the land for generations.
Another problem in the countryside, the ramblers said, was the prevalence of rubble walls that exceeded the legally permitted height of 1.2 metres.
The planning authority and Rural Affairs Ministry started a campaign to lower such walls in 2009 but Mr Vella said little action had been taken since then.
Asked why anyone would build walls so high, Mr Vella said: “They could be hunting or trapping out of season. Every scrapyard in Malta started behind high walls. Anyone who wants to do anything illegal just raises the wall.”
“When there are high walls on either side of you it’s like walking through a tunnel,” added Mr Grech. “The problem is getting worse.”
Mepa did not respond to questions on the action it has taken against illegal walls by the time of going to press.
As part of its pre-election Your Voice Counts campaign, last weekend conservation NGO Birdlife Malta unveiled a banner depicting the two main party leaders with RTO (reserved) stickers over their mouths.
In a statement, Birdlife said it wanted to draw attention to the “illegal” signs and graffiti in the countryside proclaiming public areas to be private, and the leaders’ apparent unwillingness to speak about this.
Responding to Birdlife’s call for a hunting ban in Natura 2000 areas, the hunting federation said: “Most of the land within Natura 2000 is privately owned, mostly by people whose way of life is hunting and trapping.”