Inspectors of the Building Regulations Office found no irregularities in Xlendi Bay during an inspection on Monday, despite repeated claims by tourism operators that demolition and excavation works have been scaring tourists away.

The Gozo Tourism Association complained yesterday that works are being carried out during all hours of the day and tourists have been cutting their holidays abruptly and leaving.   

Irked hoteliers said that despite guidelines issued recently by the Planning Authority and the Building Regulations Office that state that no excavation works are to be carried out in summer, this was still the case in Xlendi.  

Tourists are terminating their holiday abruptly

“Although reports were filed with the competent authorities, these works are still going on. Tourists staying in the neighbouring accommodation units are leaving their respective accommodation and terminating their holiday abruptly,” the GTA said.

A GTA spokesman said that the hoteliers had been “quite lenient” with the contractors, even agreeing to move the excavation deadline from June 15 to June 30 to allow them to finish off their work.

“But there is a limit. The hotel owners were fine with allowing them to work for a few more weeks but when the deadline passed and they started seeing tourists leave, then that started to become a problem,” the spokesman said.

Building Regulations Office sources said that the area was inspected on Monday and no problems were found on the day, with the contractors adhering to the set guidelines.

The sources added, however, that while during the inspection no problems were flagged, it could be that in more recent days, following the inspection, works had restarted.

“The BRO carried out its inspections and no issues were encountered but will be looking into the matter to ensure there are no problems,” the sources said.

Last week, this newspaper reported that despite the ban on excavation, developers in Sliema had managed to find a way around this with some 10 sites getting extensions to carry out work in July.

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