Public rights of access to and use of coastal beaches are enshrined in our laws. Beaches are common to all humankind; consequently, no one should have exclusive property rights to these natural assets.
Due to the economic importance of promoting tourism in the past, some exceptions have been made to privatising beaches. Too often, some businesses encroached on the public shoreline.
Eventually, their illegal actions were sanctioned by the Planning Authority, thereby shrinking the already scarce free accessible shoreline available to the public.
The government’s laissez-faire policies for managing public spaces over the last few years are angering many ordinary people who understandably argue that “the coast belongs to the people, not private businesses”.
A protest of St Paul’s Bay residents against the privatisation of beaches was supported by Moviment Graffitti and Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar.
ADPD chairperson and St Paul’s Bay local councillor Sandra Gauci, a vocal critic of beach privatisation, expressed the sentiment of many when she said: “We are losing our beaches, centimetre by centimetre. If we do not act now, soon there will be nothing left.”
The Perched Beach, in Buġibba, parts of Għadira Bay, the Comino shoreline accessible to swimmers and the Gillieru area, in St Paul’s Bay are a few examples of how business interests are being prioritised over the right of the public to free access to the limited shoreline suitable for swimming.
Excluding the public from the usable shoreline has become more impactful in the wake of the long, hot summers that make it crucial for people living in our increasingly stressful urban environments to have public beach access to the maximum extent possible.
International mental healthcare studies show that intentional, indirect and incidental coastal beach exposures provide the community with physical, mental, environmental and economic benefits.
The main political parties have not proposed much on how the public’s right to free access to the usable shoreline can be reinforced. The collective pressures of residents are more effective to focus the attention of policymakers on the importance of removing obstacles to the unrestricted use of public usable shorelines to the public.
NGOs are more successful in raising public awareness of the unfairness of allowing businesses, and even some selfish individuals, to encroach on the already limited shoreline available for swimming.
It is time for the government to define clear policies that strike an equitable balance between the importance of private enterprise investment in optimising the use of the shoreline for economic activities and the public’s right to the unrestricted use of beaches.
For decades, the laissez-faire attitude of shoreline preservation has led to illegalities. Increasing stretches of our shoreline, for instance, are being taken over by caravan owners despite efforts to control this abuse. Similarly, enforcement officials have not addressed the use of barriers, like sprawling sun beds and umbrellas, by businesses to prevent the public from using the shoreline.
Public investment in public beaches has also been insufficient. Parts of the inaccessible coastline can be made usable if environmentally friendly pathways are developed to ease pressure on our overcrowded beaches.
Making the entire shoreline system a community amenity open to the public is critically important. Private beachfront facilities must be regulated to ensure that those prepared to pay for additional amenities are not overcharged because of the dominant position operators have in this business activity.
Public coastal beaches hold unique value as economic and social assets. Policymakers must never forget that the beaches belong to the public. They must, therefore, make the sharing of these assets more equitable.