The Naxxar local council is calling on Infrastructure Malta to suspend an application for a temporary caravan site on the Coast Road.

The application was filed last year by the agency itself and aims to set up a ‘temporary caravan site’ in a zone marked as ‘il-Għoqot’ in Triq is-Salini, the coast road in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.

In a press conference on Monday morning, Naxxar mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami said the council had huge reservations about the application.

The council had never been consulted on plans for this site, she said, while the agency’s plans for the area do not include adequate infrastructure, such as connections to the main sewer system or electricity.

The plans also do not outline any rules to prevent abuse and see caravans permanently hogging the area all year round.

Last year, the council had attempted to introduce a by-law that would prevent caravans and camper vans from parking on the Coast Road permanently, however, this was shot down by previous Minister for Local Government Jose Herrera. 

“The council is not against having a caravan site, in fact our proposed by-law envisaged the possibility of this,” Muscat Fenech Adami said. 

“However, we cannot accept this plan in the amateur form that it has been presented in. First and foremost, the only sanitary infrastructure it has thought to include are mobile toilets,” she continued.

“Secondly, they are calling the caravan site temporary. Is it truly going to be temporary or are they going to make sure that certain people are accommodated to get a summer residence in a prime site?”

The mayor added that the application also failed to cater to the fact that the area is home to a Natura 2000 site and historic sites and is also frequented by people who practice windsurfing.

“Space is limited in this country and it is our obligation to make sure that we are making the absolute best use of it.”