There is no agreement yet on the Armier boathouses as the government seeks to sanction the illegal shanty town.

Talks between boathouse owners and the government started after the general election last year but Planning Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon was non-committal as to when they would be concluded.

“It would be presumptuous of me to give a deadline but talks were held and more are scheduled,” he said.

Ever since a botched attempt by the government to demolish the illegal shanty town in 1991, the issue has surfaced at every election with boathouse owners reaching agreements with both government and Opposition on ways to regularise their position.

Dr Falzon would not say whether the solution being sought would leave the current structures intact or include their demolition and replacement with more uniform beach rooms.

“There were various draft agreements over the years but we are working to regularise the situation as much as possible... all options are being considered and nothing is cast in stone,” he said.

Boathouse owners representative Tarcisio Barbara insisted the two sides were nowhere near agreement when contacted last week.

He refrained from giving details, insisting that talks were still going on.

But sources told The Sunday Times of Malta that the talks initiated by Dr Falzon’s predecessor, now Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia, focused on sanctioning the existing boathouses subject to certain conditions.

The conditions included the removal of boathouses built after 1992 and those situated close to ruins and on the foreshore.

The government was also discussing a fine and rental fee as compensation for the illegal encroachment on government land.

The sources said the draft under discussion was “pretty much in line” with agreements the boathouse owners had been negotiating on with the previous administration. In 2011 the planning authority had said it was still waiting for the Marfa Action Plan to be approved by the government before any decisions could be taken on the Armier boathouses.

In 2005, Armier Developments Ltd, a company set up by the Armier boathouse community, submitted a development application to turn the shanty town into an organised cluster of beach houses.

The government had proposed a similar plan in 2001, which was incorporated into the Marfa Action Plan.

However, following a public outcry, the project was placed on the backburner until 2005 when the boat owners filed their own plans for the construction of 1,500 boathouses, a third being allocated to people who do not own a boathouse there.

However, the application could not be determined by Mepa before the Marfa Action Plan was approved.

There are around 800 boathouses in Armier.