Ice cream vendor's days numbered

The Malta Transport Authority (ADT) has asked the Police Commissioner to "take the necessary action" to protect the customers of an ice cream vendor at St George's Bay, in St Julians, following the latter's struggle to keep his place in the newly embellished bay.

This means Carmelo Tanti may no longer be able to sell ice creams from his usual spot opposite the bay.

On May 26, further to an on-site inspection by the ADT's Traffic Management Directorate field officers, the ADT informed the police that people stopping to buy ice-cream from Mr Tanti's two-by-four-metre mobile kiosk (parked from morning to evening in a bay beneath the Villa Rosa wall) risked being run over.

According to the ADT, customers with a sweet tooth were being exposed to a safety hazard as they stood in the carriageway to buy ice cream from Mr Tanti's kiosk. Until last weekend, the kiosk was still in its usual place.

Mr Tanti, who has been selling ice cream at St George's Bay for years and has a hawker's licence, refused to move his kiosk when workers turned up to build a new pavement - part of the embellishment works in the area - in May, fearing he may not be able to sell ice creams once a lido and restaurant currently under construction are completed.

As a hawker, Mr Tanti has to respect a condition of not operating within a 50-metre radius from direct competitors.

Speaking to The Times about Mr Tanti's case, Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech had said one had to see whether the vendor created a traffic hazard.

The tender to develop the 600-square-metre lido and the restaurant was won by Intercontinental Hotel, who will be paying a yearly lease of Lm33,300. Eden Leisure Group, the owners, are expected to invest some Lm320,000 on the development.

A revamp of the bay itself - including shipping all the sand from Jordan and the construction of a new promenade - cost public coffers some Lm550,000.