In the last couple of years, kiosks in Gozo have been sprouting up in every corner, particularly in Marsalforn. It is interesting to note how they start off as simple vans selling ice cream and burgers, with a couple of tables and chairs during the summer period, and end up permanently affixed there.

The latest kiosk to pop up this summer has been set up in the parking area in Saint Mary Street, just near the Promenade. A kiosk was set up when a festival was held there at the beginning of summer; it has never been removed since. Together with several tables and chairs, it has taken up precious parking spaces – as if parking in Marsalforn was not already a problem. To add insult to injury, we woke up last Sunday to find that the kiosk was changed into a permanent, wooden one. This eyesore now consists of an ice-cream van, a wooden kiosk, and tables and chairs.

Can the local authorities please answer my question as to whether these kiosks have the relative permits and pay the necessary trading licences? Can I wake up one fine day, choose a public area at random and set up a gabbana (kiosk) there? And then maybe let a couple of months pass, put down a concrete stand there and be permanently established there? I would really like to know. Is this all fair to other restaurants, which fork out vast sums of money each year to pay for permits and licences and to ensure all is run according to law. Because sure enough, restaurant owners running a successful business are sometimes hindered by local authorities over a triviality, and fines are issued and warnings given, but then the gabbana owners are allowed to do as they please.

I cannot believe for a minute that the authorities are unaware of what is going on right under their noses. I would really like to think differently – that things are done according to law. But when you see such blatant cheek, you cannot but believe that in our country, things proceed according to who you are and whom you know. Small trivialities such as law-abiding procedures are easily dispensed with.

Claire Farrugia

MARSALFORN