Sliema and St Julian’s restaurants continue to illegally eat up public land

Sliema and St Julian’s have at least 17 pending enforcement notices against kiosks and restaurants that continue to illegally occupy and encumber public space for their commercial gain, a document tabled in answer to a parliamentary question by 10th district opposition MP Albert Buttigieg shows.

The document tabled in parliament by Public Works and Planning Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi shows that the total number of pending enforcement notices of any kind totalled 19 and 22 for St Julian’s and Sliema respectively.

It also shows how many enforcement notices date back almost a decade, raising questions as to whether the daily fines incurred by the infractions have ever been paid.

Cross-referencing the enforcement notices’ numbers listed in the document with the Planning Authority’s server, The Shift can report that several big-name establishments are listed. These include Black Bull, Hugo’s Terrace and Eeetwell in St Julian’s, and Trattoria del Mare, Il-Fortizza, and Chequers in Sliema, among others.

An area with a particular concentration of infractions is The Strand in Sliema, with no less than six instances of illegal tents, extended awnings or encumbering seating from restaurants. Many of the enforcement notices use similar wording, to the effect of “illegal development with tented structure and change of use from public pavement to commercial area for the placing of tables and chairs”.

While Sliema and St Julian’s may be particular hot spots for the unenforced take-up of public land for commercial use, the same practice can be seen across every locality on the island.

In August 2022, The Shift reported how public land was being taken up by commercial interests in Valletta and found that a mixture of weak enforcement and cutthroat commercialism had gradually normalised illegal outdoor areas.

While the practice had been an issue before the Covid-19 pandemic, as evidenced by the copious pending enforcement notices dating back almost a decade, during the pandemic the Maltese government issued temporary permits allowing restaurants and other dining establishments to extend their outdoor seating areas – ostensibly to counterbalance the reduced seating capacity and space between tables that had been mandated to limit the spread of the virus.

While in June 2022 Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo said these permits had since been revoked, many establishments have nevertheless continued to encumber public land for commercial gain.

The lack of enforcement by the authorities has resulted in what can only be seen as a de facto regularisation of the illegal consumption of public land.