Valletta residents are expected to take to the streets in protest on Saturday, in opposition to what they say is the excessive encroachment of public spaces, primarily by catering establishments.
Starting with a press conference at 11 am outside Parliament, protest organiser Billy. J McBee said that while residents have previously been able to live in harmony with businesses who put out two or three tables and chairs, things have now escalated to the point where public spaces have been all but taken over by the private sector.
In turn, outdoor catering areas on the streets of Valletta are making life difficult for the people who live there, creating accessibility blocks and obstructing communal services as well as creating a general sense of chaos due to a lack of uniformity and upkeep of these public spaces.
The current state of affairs has left the elderly and the disabled out in the cold, while no consideration has been made for emergency vehicles, Mc Bee said.
Residents, he said, feel that this does not befit a UNESCO World Heritage and is actively contributing to its deterioration.
Activist group Moviment Graffitti will also be joining the protest in support of Valletta residents, saying that the authorities who are meant to keep businesses that make use of public spaces in check have abdicated their responsibility to do so.
“Despite there being clear policies that are meant to regulate the operation of outdoor catering areas, enforcement is largely non-existent. The authorities concerned, namely the Lands Authority, the Planning Authority and the MTA are clearly not fit for the job,” Graffiti said in a statement.
“Due to the impunity that reigns in this sector, the owners of catering establishments are running roughshod over the right of residents to public accessibility and a decent quality of life. The Valletta residents are having to bear to brunt of the unbridled commercialisation of their public spaces.”
NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar is also supporting the protest and encouraged all citizens facing encroachment issues to attend.
"The public should not be deprived of the use of pavements and promenades given over for private profit," they said in a statement.
"Lack of enforcement on loud music well into the night, rowdy and drunk patrons and obstructed doorways are also greatly impacting residents' rights and quality of life."
The issue of private enterprise encroaching on public space has resurfaced in recent days, with veteran broadcaster Peppi Azzopardi telling Lovin Malta that he sometimes sits at outdoor tables and refuses to budge.
“I don’t have a problem with a few outdoor tables but some places are exaggerating and taking up the whole street,” he said.
Azzopardi said that he often continues in these acts of protest even when confronted by restaurant staff.
“I tell him that the table may be his, but the street is ours. That’s what we should start doing when we witness these exaggerations, we should just sit down at those tables.”
Last year the Ombudsman went to Parliament to demand proper rules and procedures for outdoor catering areas that take up public land, handing the House a set of recommendations for better enforcement.
But a year later, those plans and recommendations have remained shelved, with the Ombudsman last month slamming the authorities for delaying tackling the issue.
Traditional Holy Week celebrations in 2023 were marred as volunteers had to wade through tables and chairs, while loud music disrupted the religious procession.
The proliferation of outdoor catering areas in Valletta also made headlines in March when footage of an ambulance struggling to squeeze past street furniture on its way to a call went viral.