OPM reassures GRTU over Ta' Qali plan

The government has every intention of continuing with its plans for the national park and crafts village at Ta' Qali, and tenants outside the designated zone would be evicted if they did not leave of their own accord, the prime minister's private secretary Pierre Portelli has reassured the Association of General Retailers and Traders, GRTU.

The GRTU on Monday presented a request to the prime minister to clarify the future of the plan, which involved relocating several businesses that lie outside the designated area.

One of those businesses, the nightclub Numero Uno, has applied for some illegal buildings to be sanctioned by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, and the GRTU feared that if these illegal buildings were sanctioned, it would by inference mean that the MEPA was giving its approval for the night club to stay there.

The GRTU felt this would not be fair on the other businesses which had agreed to be relocated.

In a letter to the GRTU on behalf of the OPM, copied to the press, Mr Portelli said the nightclub had obtained a police licence to operate in 1981 and this was still valid.

However, last April, an eviction order was issued to all the tenants outside the designated zone, who had been informed that the government would be terminating their lease and that they were henceforth there on encroachment.

"When the time comes for the buildings to be demolished, this (eviction) order will be enforced should the tenant not vacate the premises of his own free will," Mr Portelli wrote.