Government negotiating new space for evicted caravans
James Debono The government is holding talks with the private owners of a caravan site in l-Ahrax tal-Mellieha, to find space for caravan owners evicted from a public car park near the Mellieha Bay Hotel last year.
Mellieha mayor Robert Cutajar confirmed the local council’s involvement in these talks. “The council is only involved to facilitate a fair solution based on respect of the law,” Cutajar said.
The issue was recently raised in parliament by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, who alleged the mayor – who is also part of the private secretariat in the Office of the Prime Minister – had originally promised the caravan owners access to a site in Anchor Bay, near Popeye Village.
But according to Bartolo this project was shelved because a fireworks factory is now being planned on the same site.
It turns out that the fireworks factory is not located on the proposed caravan site, but on nearby agricultural land further inland from Anchor Bay.
Bartolo also asked the Prime Minister whether the government intended “subsidising” the caravan owners to enable them to pay for the use of space in another private caravan site.
In his reply, the Prime Minister simply confirmed that discussions are underway with the private company that runs a camp-site in l-Ahrax to “facilitate the service to a number of caravan owners.”
When contacted, Mellieha mayor Robert Cutajar strongly denied that he had ever made any promise to locate caravans in the proposed caravan site in Anchor Bay, insisting that a planning application for this development is still pending.
Environmental NGOs are strongly objecting to the development of the caravan site in Anchor Bay, as this falls within the parameters of the Majjistral Park and lies outside development zones. The application has been dragging for the past year.
The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, which had applied to develop the Anchor Bay caravan site, confirmed that it was not aware of the fireworks factory application when it applied for the development, adding that it is now up to MEPA to decide on whether these two developments are compatible.
When asked whether a fireworks factory is compatible with a caravan site a short distance away, Cutajar insisted that this question should be made to the competent authorities.
The application for the fireworks factory was presented by Ghaqda Nar Maria Bambina, whose secretary Joe Aquilina insists that Mellieha needs a fireworks factory because it is one of the few localities without such a facility.
The application was presented a year after MEPA issued an enforcement order against seven illegal rooms and the use of fireworks without a permit on the same site.
M’skala plans scrapped
Another application for the development of the Marsaskala caravan site has now been withdrawn by the resources ministry. The site was proposed in an area known as il-Blajjiet, in the vicinity of the national pool. The ministry previously claimed the site, which lies outside the development zones, was identified as “one of the best suited sites in a site selection exercise” by MEPA to pinpoint possible caravan sites.
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