Editorial

Enough is enough, no more beaches must be closed off to the public. But encroachment by business premises is not the only blight that has robbed the people of this tiny island of prime seashore.

Recently the government has been battling with illegal encroachment of seaside areas by owners of 'boathouses', 'pleasure garages' and beach huts. The long-running saga over this has not yet ended, with owners of illegal structures even threatening the government with their vote.

But there is yet another type of beach encroachment that is robbing the people of other prime seashore at a time when they seek it most. Lidos in some bays are taking up practically all the prime space, edging out those who do not wish to make use of their services - umbrellas and sunbeds.

Two places where this happens regularly are Mellieha Bay and Armier. Who is responsible to see that the regulations are observed?

Why should people who are not prepared to hire umbrellas and sunbeds be forced to stay at the very back of these bays or even be forced to go out to other bays?

Lido owners say they have permits to set up a certain number of umbrellas. They make good money on them, and why shouldn't they, indeed, so long as they keep to regulations? Now here comes the comic part of the story.

According to government sources, it has been a long-standing policy to allow beach lidos about 60 feet by 100 feet where to set up sunbeds and umbrellas.

"The government marks the area with tags, but once we turn our backs, this area suddenly becomes bigger. Admittedly it's a situation hard to control unless you have enforcement officers continually on site to ensure everyone sticks to their area," the sources said.

What kind of an argument is this? Do local councils of the areas in which these popular bays are located have any say in all this? What exactly is their reaction?

It may be difficult for enforcement officers to be on the spot all the time. But we do believe, however, that a good example must be set, and some hefty fines imposed.

Offenders should also be warned that they run the risk of having their permits withdrawn if they persist in going against the regulations.

If this were to be done, they will all learn to keep to their quotas. But the fines must be large enough to offset any profit made by breaking the rules.

Why has not this been done? Again, while it may be difficult, if not practically impossible, to have enforcement officers policing all popular bays all day long, surely we need to have better supervision than that we have now - that is, if we have at all!

People should no longer be robbed of prime seashore. Also, there is need to give greater attention to developing approaches to the sea and to ensuring that bays and the seashore are kept clean. Some good work has been done in this direction, but some sites cry out for attention.

Bins have to be emptied more regularly than they are now, particularly at the most popular bays, such as Mellieha, Golden Bay and Ghajn Tuffieha, and the sand thoroughly cleaned.

When we finally manage to do this, then we can think of moving to the next step - that of the need to provide basic beach facilities.