Recently I visited a relative of mine at Zammit Clapp Hospital in St Julian’s. While I was very pleased to see the way the premises has been modernised to meet today’s standards and ensure that all residents are given the very best of care, I was appalled by what I saw before I entered the building.

Part of the car park leading to this state-of-the art building has been transformed into a farm, with horses and goats and animals of all sorts.

What impressed me most was the advice given to me by one of the employees at the hospital who suggested that I should move my parked car as I risked having it scratched by the horses and their carts.

On making further inquiries, it transpired that the person/s occupying this space are doing so illegally as the land belongs to the government and I am not aware of any parliamentary approval for the granting of this piece of land to third parties. I have also made some inquiries myself with the Lands Department. I did not get far as I was informed that the piece of land in question belongs to the Health Department.

On further inquiring with the Health Department I was told that Care Malta is responsible for the hospital and therefore for the land in question. I took this to be a question of shifting responsibility from one department to another as I cannot imagine a contractor for the operation of a government hospital being authorised to a sublet government land to third parties.

If this is a case of squatting, how come Mepa has not taken steps to issue an enforcement notice for change of use and how is it that the authorities have not resorted to an evacuation as in the case of the Għadira boathouses?

As a taxpayer, I feel I am entitled to know how government property is allocated to third parties without following the established legal procedures.