Adds parliamentary secretary's reaction to comments
Caravans are set to return to the site in Bahar ic-Caghaq which was cleared of all structures by the government last year.
Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi announced that the Safari Camping Club is to be allowed use of an area for 114 caravans in Bahar ic-Caghaq between June and September.
The use of the site will be governed by a site management agreement with the Safari Camping Club, which will be required to make a €12,000 bank guarantee to ensure that contract conditions including cleanliness and order, are observed. The foreshore has to remain accessible to the public. The caravan owners will be required to pay a total of €40,000 to use the site, the first time that such payment is being requested.
Dr Azzopardi said this was a temporary arrangement until the government set up an official camping site at Zonqor Point. A development application was filed in February.
The campers at Bahar ic-Caghaq last year drew up a petition asking the government to designate the area for an official camping site.
PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY REACTS TO COMMENTS
Reacting to comments made on this site, Parliament Secretary Jason Azzopardi said this decision was far from being an electoral ploy.
"How can this be an electoral ploy, when for the first time, the caravan owners have been asked to pay for use of the site? This is the first time that the owners are being charged an encroachment fee, and a total of €40,000 is not small. This is also the first time that the club is being request to submit a bank guarantee which means that even if even one caravan owner out of the 114 does not observe any of the conditions imposed by the government, the guarantee will be forfeited and all the caravan owners will be removed."
Dr Azzopardi also pointed out that the Governent Property Division last week issued 14 eviction notices against squatters in the Verdala area of Cospicua. Two squatters were also evicted from shops in Siggiewi and Rabat. These too, surely, were not election ploys.
He also pointed out that the division and the MTA last week also issued letters of warning to 12 operators of beach concession at Ghadira Bay.