Residents from several towns made it to Valletta on Saturday morning to protest the private sector’s excessive take-up of public space.

Protest organiser Billy McBee said demonstrators were not opposed to all outdoor tables and chairs. The problem was that there were now too many and more enforcement and control was needed.

He stressed that this lack of space impacts everyone but primarily the most vulnerable in the community; people with disabilities and the elderly.

Concerns about restaurant tables and chairs filling pavements and pedestrian areas have grown in recent years, with demonstrators agreeing that the situation was exacerbated by the government’s reluctance to row back concessions made to establishment owners due to COVID-19 restrictions.

As frustration has grown, citizens have increasingly started taking things into their own hands: a Sliema resident applied with the Lands Authority to take up public land herself, Victoria's archpriest took to social media to shame restauranteurs making it hard to organise funerals at a local church, and former Xarabank host Peppi Azzopardi said he sometimes sat at outdoor tables but did not order anything, as a sign of protest.

"This is a matter of life and death in some cases,” Astrid Vella of Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar told people gathered in Valletta on Saturday.

She was referring to an incident in which an ambulance was unable to reach a Valletta resident, because its route was blocked by too many tables and chairs.

Vella claimed that as a result, the person who needed medical attention now has permanent brain damage.

This is a matter fo life and death in some cases,- Astrid Vella

Vella expanded on McBee’s plea for enforcement saying that the current arrangement of having to ping-pong from one authority to another does not work.

Encroachment of public land is regulated by the Malta Tourism Authority, Lands Authority and the Planning Authority.

Vella added: " Since Roman times, the seashore has belonged to the people and we are losing our birthright."

Independent MEP candidate Arnold Cassola, who also spoke at the protest, noted that Malta’s new president, Myriam Spiteri Debono, had said in her inauguration speech that the country has been taken over by greed. He insisted that Valletta was a prime example of this.

Cassola said,” The slogan of the capital is Citta Humilisisma. Let's make sure that these people do not turn it into Citta Ħamallisima”.

Protesters on Saturday. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Valletta mayor Alfred Zammit acknowledged there is a problem with encroachment of public land, and also complained that exceptions made during the pandemic have exacerbated the problem.

But speaking on RTK 103 radio earlier on Saturday, the mayor sought to emphasise that the problem is not solely exclusive to Valletta – Sliema, Marsaxlokk and other popular areas had similar issues, he noted.

Zammit said the problem was a lack of enforcement, and rule-breakers could be reined.

Tables and chairs fill Merchants Street in Valletta. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci, who lives in St Paul’s Bay, said her town is facing the same issue – private businesses there are taking up public land in the town centre, as well as public space on the coast, she said.

Many members of the protest's crowd were, in fact, from other areas of the island who empathised with the plight of the Valletta residents. Many speakers raised similar issues faced in other towns and areas such as Gżira, Victoria and Manoel Island.