The owners of 12 caravans perched on the road along Little Armier bay are insisting they want an alternative location and are considering appealing a court ruling declaring they have no right to be there.
“We never said we had legal title over the land and we are not stamping our feet and saying we won’t move. But we will be insisting on being given an alternative site… we are even prepared to pay,” said Tarcisio Barbara, chairman of Armier Developments Limited.
We never felt we did anything illegal
Carmelo Galea, who has owned a caravan along the bay for 35 years, said the Government had signalled its approval when it supplied them with water and electricity, which they applied for through the normal channels.
On Friday, the court declared that the caravans on publicly-owned land are there illegally.
The ruling came in a case filed by Armier Developments Limited and 12 caravan occupants after the Land Department ordered their eviction two years ago.
They called on the court to declare that the eviction order was unenforceable and that they were legally entitled to make use of their caravans by virtue of what they described as an agreement with the Government (the document was in the form of a letter) in 2003.
In the letter, the Government had said it was prepared to accept the construction of a number of units, subject to conditions.
Mr Barbara said the company had submitted a development application to turn the shanty town into an organised cluster of 500 beach houses. However, the application could not be determined by the planning authority before the Marfa Action Plan was approved.
He said the association was seeking advice over whether to appeal Friday’s court decision. Discussions with the Government to try and find a solution were ongoing, he said.
This was confirmed by a Government spokesman, who said discussions had also been going on under the previous administration.
Following Friday’s judgment Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he would seek advice before taking any decisions.
Environmental NGOs Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth, MOAM and Ramblers Association have welcomed the ruling.
They also called on the Government to remove the illegal structures that are occupying public land. Alternattiva Demokratika also insisted on a decision over the Marfa Action Plan. A draft was published in June 2002.
Commenting on timesofmalta.com, readers called the illegal squatter saga a “national shame”.
One man wrote: “The public requires serious action once and for all ... the Government cannot keep tolerating this kind of serious abuse any longer.”
Maris Azzopardi and Anthony Vella, who own boathouses on the hill at Little Armier, said they did not want to take anything from anyone.
They said it upset them that the public always picked on the Armier boathouses when there were so many worse illegal structures, including full-blown hotels that occupied the shoreline.
“I can understand how people who don’t have boathouses don’t like the situation but you have to experience it to understand… We are not trying to have the area to ourselves. On the contrary, we want others to be able to enjoy it which is why we made the proposals to Government,” Mr Vella said.
Sandra Azzopardi, who has been occupying a boathouse since 1988, said: “Back then we did what many people were doing as there was no planning authority. We came here and, a few days later, we had water and electricity provided by Government. We never felt we did anything illegal,” she said, adding that having to leave would be devastating.