I refer to letter by Fiona Keeling entitled Restaurant Badly Served By Bureaucracy (January 7). Since the restaurant in Xlendi has not been identified by the correspondent, the Parliamentary Secretariat has investigated the claims on the general information submitted.

For clarity's sake it is to be explained that the placement of tables and chairs on public land by a catering establishment requires three permits/licences. A permit is required from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) in order to ensure that the placement of tables and chairs is in keeping with the local surrounding environment. A permit by the Lands Department is required since the tables and chairs will be placed on public land. Once the said two permits are obtained, an MTA licence is issued in favour of the catering establishment concerned.

It results that the Malta Tourism Authority has 29 catering establishments registered in Xlendi, 19 of which have a "tables and chairs on the outside" permit.

The MTA has seven pending applications by Xlendi catering establishments, each of which application is for an increase in the number of tables and chairs already permitted to be placed outside. In other words, there are no pending applications by establishments that do not already have a permit for tables and chairs to be placed outside. Of the seven pending applications, one was refused by Mepa; two are under consideration by Mepa and four are under consideration by the Lands Department, given that this involves further encroachment on public land. Of these seven applications, there are only two from establishments in a pedestrianised area in Xlendi as indicated by the correspondent. Contrary to the impression of a three-year "backlog of bureaucracy", one of these applications was registered at the MTA in July 2008 and the other was registered at the MTA in August 2008.

Notwithstanding this, we invite the correspondent to contact the MTA Licensing Unit on tel. 2291 5000 to submit more details of the case she is referring to. We trust that the Unit will be of service to her.