Inspired by green activists who, on Saturday, gatecrashed parts of Manoel Island to restore public access to the foreshore, a councillor in nearby Sliema wants to do the same at the Tigné peninsula.

“My sole intention is to give back Tigné point to the people,” Nationalist Party councillor John Pillow said yesterday.

He will therefore be asking the council to make a formal request to the Midi consortium, which, some years ago, had been given a concession over both Manoel Island and Tigné Point.

He announced his intention in a Facebook post in which he shared a Times of Malta report about the action taken by activists from Kamp Emerġenza Ambjent. Members of this coalition of environmental groups over the weekend forced open metal gates that had been blocking public access to the Manoel Island foreshore or years.

The action received the full backing of the Gżira council, which noted that Midi should have never erected such barriers because the foreshore was not part of the project. Though the historic Fort Manoel was restored by the consortium, plans for luxury houses have not materialised so far.

In his Facebook post, Mr Pillow complained that the beach was no longer accessible due to a number of gates erected by Midi both from the Tigné side as well as at Qui-Si-Sana. He also noted that a bridge along the coast had been destroyed, thus making it even harder to walk along the peninsula.

Sliema mayor Anthony Chircop gave his cautious backing to Mr Pillow’s proposal. While noting that, by law, whoever was given a beach concession must normally leave a public passageway, he said that taking the law into one’s own hands was no solution.

“We need to establish the conditions of the concession granted to Midi and verify whether these have been respected before making any rash decisions,” the mayor said.

“If it transpires that Midi had no right to permanently bar public access to Tigné beach, we will step up our action,” Mr Chircop added.