A number of illegal extensions to the existing concrete platforms, paving works, canopies and other protruding structures that were encroaching on the foreshore and restricting public access to the sea in Xemxija have been removed.

This direct action followed the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s removal of a number of caravans from the foreshore in Gnejna last week.

The authority also removed large quantities of derelict material from a scrapyard operating without a permit in Nadur.

Mepa said that the operation at Xemxija, alongside a number of boathouses, spanned over two days. Its officials, accompanied by ALE police, supervised the removal of the structures which were impeding residents’ access and use of the coast.

The authority said that its intervention in Nadur was the second one this year. Last March, it had carried out enforcement on the scrapyard after the owner was served with an enforcement notice. He had tried appealing before the Planning Appeals Board and the Court of Appeals, but both appeals were turned down.

Mepa said that over the past weeks, it stepped up its efforts to tackle the long-pending list of enforcement cases that were referred for direct action.

These cases were the result of owners’ deciding not to comply with the 15-day period, indicated in the enforcement notice, within which they had to remove their illegality and return the site to its original state.