Where better to sit on a warm November day than at a St Thomas Bay hideaway sipping an Italian brand coffee? This dusty and derelict little boathouse haven has nothing much to offer but an uncluttered sea view - which counts for a lot these days.

The illegal expansions are mercifully away from the line of direct vision as clientele gaze at the lapping waves. Fields behind a clutch of restaurants risk being encroached upon by client car parks.

After a packed meeting at Balluta, the St Julian's council did well to back down on its own proposal for an automated car park which someone at the hearing called a "new toy". With car engines running for up to seven minutes while the car ahead is manoeuvered hydraulically into place, pollution would increase to cancer-causing levels. Such have been the fears of residents and other users of the square.

No mention was made at the public consultation of the proposed demolition of public toilets and how this might affect families and the elderly for whom the open space is their only form of recreation.

A look at the Mepa mapserver shows enforcements (red lines) scattered across the country. Only in a minority of cases does the owner of the property comply.

Attempts to build car showrooms in areas outside the development boundary are being presented to Mepa dressed up as petrol stations. The formula for chipping away at planning policy until it gives way completely is now a well-known recipe. Here is how the Qormi case proceeded:

In 1995, Mepa received an application to construct a reservoir for agricultural use on a site outside the development zone, off the Luqa-Qormi roundabout. This kind of tactic is often resorted to so developers can start excavation and then change plans later, or build anyway and apply for sanctioning afterwards.

After the first refusal, a separate application was made at the same location to build a car showroom, but was turned down on appeal in 2001 because it was not found to be an ecological or agricultural enterprise compatible with countryside planning policies.

Next, a petrol station application for an outline permit on the showroom site was submitted under a different name, followed up by a full development permit for a petrol station being granted. As soon as the full permit for the petrol station came through, the owners leapt in again with amendments to the permit, steering the development back to the way they wanted it. This application was again submitted but refused by the Mepa board in September 2008.

However, the developer decided to go ahead with the plans anyway, built a petrol station and opened for business in the summer. It was reported in sections of the press that the petrol station and adjacent carwash were operating without any compliance certificate. Without such a certificate, the electricity meter would never be read, so any such establishment would never receive an electricity bill.

Now a sanctioning appears to be underway after fresh plans were submitted last July. The deadline for objections closes next Sunday.

If this development is sanctioned (the Development Control Board may not find any problem if no objections are filed) then a precedent could be set for car showrooms in other ODZ areas. A proposal for another car showroom, in the guise of a petrol station, on the road leading to Mġarr is currently being processed by Mepa.

The DCC needs to stand firm against such attempts. Less passivity from Mepa and more speed in sealing off irregular construction sites would avoid risking a fait accompli and the associated washing of hands.

Hidden away behind the car showroom is a farmhouse owned by the same applicant. An enforcement order on the demolition of rooms followed by "extensive" construction in this non-urban area was frosted over with an appeal by the contravener. On this site, adjacent to the rogue petrol station, a swimming pool, stables, fountain and arches have all been found to be without the necessary permits.

Leaving Qormi and Żebbuġ behind, it is a pleasant route down to Għar Lapsi. Once past the Tal-Providenza chapel, take a turn off the main road down country lanes and you will find illegal trapping activity within five minutes' walking distance. Illegal bird trapping has not stopped at all, only receded to slightly more out-of-the-way places. We would be fooling the European Commission and ourselves if we said it had come to an end.

Walking along remote country lanes armed with a large camera now draws a different response. Not long ago hikers might have often encountered aggressive behaviour if they stumbled upon a trapper.

Today the attitude has shifted somewhat. A gaggle of men shift uneasily. Their dogs run over, tails wagging, and sniff their friendly approval at us, the approaching intruders. The clandestine trappers reassure each other that it is only some tourists who appear to be lost. Not to give the game away we train our camera lenses on other images: a milestone, a military bunker, pretending not to notice the plastic decoys and the nets.

The Administrative Law Enforcement section responsible for bringing illegal trappers to book should look to patrolling the ridge overlying Għar Lapsi. The area is hidden from the main road but trapping is practised there openly, fully visible from a public lane.