A man is claiming that his family's recent visit to Għadira Bay was ruined when staff at Adira Lido objected to them setting up an umbrella in its concession area and eventually asked the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) beach manager to move them.
Rupert Buttigieg said his family were unable to relax because of the pressure to make them move.
In a letter to The Sunday Times (page 18), Mr Buttigieg says he arrived at the beach with his wife and children at around 7.30 a.m. on September 6 when it was still empty. He chose a spot near to the water line in front of Adira Lido and said there were no signs indicating that the area was private and no sun beds or umbrellas set up.
Gradually, the area around him was covered in sun beds and umbrellas and he was subsequently told to move elsewhere by two men he presumed worked at Adira Lido. When he asked why, one of the men told him they had paid good money for a concession permit for that area of the beach.
Mr Buttigieg refused to move and asked to see their concession permit. Later, while he was swimming, Mr Buttigieg said that a man in a straw hat approached his wife and told her to move. When he got out of the water, the man identified himself as the MTA beach manager and said he had come instead of the police to move them.
"For the umpteenth time I asked to see the permit and some sort of identification document. Needless to say, he had neither. By this time I thought I was on Candid Camera," Mr Buttigieg said.
When contacted, MTA product and planning development manager Kevin Fsadni said he was not aware of any provision in the law which permitted beach concession operators to prevent the public from sitting in concession areas without using the facilities, provided they were not disruptive or damaging items belonging to the operator.
Mr Buttigieg insists he was not, and only occupied a small, empty space in front of the lido's sun beds.
The beach manager concerned could not be contacted by Mr Fsadni yesterday to give his version of events. However, Mr Fsadni said in general it was not the beach manager's role to ask people to move from encroachment areas.
The manager's role is to monitor the general situation at the beach and address potential conflicts between the various stakeholders. In fact, beach managers were encouraged this summer to assist enforcement officers in keeping concession operators within their established limits.
Mr Fsadni said the beach manager usually wore visible ID and it would be extremely unusual for him not to show official identification.
In response to the allegations, Adira Lido co-owner Andre Adams said the concession permit entitles the lido to set up 16 umbrellas and 32 sun beds, but Mr Buttigieg was situated in the middle of its area and was preventing them from putting out their full entitlement.
"We calmly explained to him that all he had to do was move 10 yards to the public area of the beach. We often allow the public to get away with it, but it was a Sunday and we had to maximise profit. This guy was just determined to be difficult and in the end we had no choice but to call the beach supervisor," he said.
Beach concession permits are issued by the Government Property Division of the Ministry of Finance, the Economy and Investment, and operators are allowed to charge for the hiring of sun beds and umbrellas within their approved areas. Mellieħa mayor Robert Cutajar said that local enforcement officers employed by the council patrolled the beach regularly and checked to ensure that concession operators did not abuse the conditions of their permit. Mellieħa council is finalising an application for Blue Flag status for Għadira Bay, which it hopes to achieve "within a year".