Dr Vassallo said Gozo lacked public aquatic sports facilities and that EU funds available for the development of sports facilities had not been tapped into.

AD was supporting Marsalforn residents in objecting to a planning application by which the club intended to excavate the foreshore for a seawater pool and build other sports facilities. The development would result in extending the site by another 30 metres, effectively transferring a public foreshore into a private complex.

Residents were informed that 597 square metres of public foreshore and another 234 square metres of an existing building had already been ceded by government to the club in 2005.

Dr Vassallo said residents and the public were left in the dark over the entire matter. He added that “the Otters Club owners should at least have organised a public meeting informing all those concerned about their plans to occupy this public foreshore left in Marsalforn. Such aquatic sports facilities should form part of the existing sports complex in Victoria where adjacent land is available; another possibility could be the rehabilitation of the abandoned Hondoq ir-Rummien distillation plant.”

The AD chairperson said the Gozo should not suffer from the trend of turning shores privatised by aquatic sports clubs into private restaurants and beach clubs. He stated that Gozo deserved an Olympic Standard heated pool heated to be used both in winter and summer for training and available to all clubs, schools and the general public, while retaining precious scarce areas freely accessible to the public.

AD secretary-general and Gozo spokesman Victor Galea said government should tap EU funds to provide central aquatic sports facilities for Gozitans. The party, he said, had a long and successful history in keeping beaches freely available to the public. “We intend to protect this coastal area left in Marsalforn to defend public rights of access, as well as to secure proper aquatic sports facilities elsewhere,” he concluded.