The Gżira mayor said this morning that while his council embraced the fact that the MIDI consortium had finally has acceded to its request to grant access to the foreshore, it was not in any way begging for a grant from MIDI as the consortium was stating.

After days of protests, MIDI said yesterday it will grant supervised public access to the foreshore at Manoel Island from this weekend.

“MIDI are contractually obliged to leave an access both after completion as per plans attached to the contract…

“MIDI are obliged to reasonably indicate to the government the areas of the property where development will take place to be enclosed for safety purposes and MIDI are bound not to unduly interrupt essential services which includes access to parts also not included in the property namely the foreshore,” the mayor said.

He said that public interest and the common good should prevail in these cases. The aim of the project, he pointed out, was the regeneration of the area for public use and enjoyment. The public’s rights, he said, had been breached for 16 whole years. 

“As a council we will shoulder responsibilities for the public areas as we do in all such areas within our locality when our jurisdiction is extended to cover also Manoel Island. This request has been unanimously agreed within the council and sent to the government for acceptance.”

He clarified that access to the island will only be from 8am to 8pm during the weekends until the necessary infrastructure and surveillance measures were installed. 

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