The Victoria monti hawkers have filed an injunction against the local council to prevent their move to Savina Square following paving works at Independence Square.

A group of 30 frustrated hawkers complained they were never consulted by the local council and only got to know they were to move out of Independence Square (also known as ­it-Tokk) on October 20, 2014, through a letter they had received nine days earlier.

Since October, all the Victoria hawkers have suspended their operations.

Despite being allotted the parking area behind the Victoria bus terminus in Giorgio Borg Olivier Street, Gozo, as a temporary site, the hawkers have refused to set up their stalls there.

Representative and hawker Antonella Vella explained that the space they were allocated was too narrow for them to set up their stalls.

It was also dangerous, she said, to set up the stalls on yellow lines in the middle of the road, among passing vehicles. The hawkers are therefore also suing for damages.

“The law stipulates the size of each stall. The spaces we were allotted at the parking area are too small,” she added.

“It’s like a chess board – how can you set up your stall right in the middle? How can you manoeuvre with your van and metal bars?”

At Independence Square, the hawkers used to secure their stalls to the trees to prevent the damage brought by strong gusts of wind. The parking area had no such anchoring points and was completely exposed to the elements.

The hawkers, Ms Vella said, were never against the paving and embellishment project of Independence Square.

However, they were under the impression that they were to return to their long-standing post there.

Instead, they were told that they were to move further down, to Savina Square, which is also currently being embellished.

“I have no idea how we are all going to fit in. We are 40 hawkers in total. Only 15 parked cars can fit in Savina Square. Independence Square was great – tourists used to drop by into the cafeterias and then come over to the flea market,” she said.

“In Savina Square, we’re going to be cramped up right in front of people’s doorsteps. I’m not too sure the residents will be thrilled with us.

“We didn’t want it come to this. But meetings with the mayor and the Gozo minister got us nowhere.”

In a counter-protest filed in November, the Victoria council said the hawkers had been informed of the paving works three years ago.

The alternative, temporary site behind the bus terminus was not dangerous and the hawkers were refusing to set up their stalls there out of “pique and fickleness”.

Additionally, Savina Square was not only “decent and adequate” but also a better place than what the hawkers had before, it said.

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