The Trade Fairs Exhibitors' Association has postponed a trade fair due to have been held at the end of this month which would have marked a return of trade fairs to the Naxxar Trade Fair grounds.

TFEA chairman Paul Abela told a well attended meeting of exhibitors yesterday evening that the fair had to be postponed because permits from the Director of Trade were still pending.

During the meeting, legal adviser Prof Ian Refalo insisted that the association did not need a new Mepa permit for the use of the Naxxar grounds for trade fairs.

Those grounds had been used for the holding of fairs for decades, he said, well before the setting up of Mepa. There had been no change of use and the permits remained valid, despite any interruption in the holding of the fairs.

He warned that any refusal to the holding of fairs could lead to claims for compensation which would run into millions of euro.

The exhibitors were also told that the company could continue to make use of the car park as part of the holding of its activities.

During the meeting, Mr Abela said that two of three applications for warrants of prohibitory injunction filed against TFEA had now been dropped.