The Safari Camping Club have lately agreed to a set of conditions regulating the use of the temporary caravan site in Bahar ic-Caghaq after the illegal campsite was cleared at the end of last summer.

Meanwhile caravans occupying a stretch of privately owned land at Gnejna Bay, were yesterday removed by a Malta Environment and Planning Authority direct action. Mepa direct action team personnel with the assistance of the police Administrative Law Enforcement unit early yesterday morning started to remove 13 caravans from the scheduled area of Gnejna Bay.

The Safari Camping Club is to issue a e12,000 bank guarantee and will pay a e40,000 encroachment fee for the period between 1 June and 30 September. The space would cater for no more than 114 mobile caravans that can be driven away at short notice.

Currently ground levelling works are underway and caravans are expected at the site later on this week.

Three weeks ago, Parliamentary Secretary for Lands Jason Azzopardi told journalists at a press briefing that he had met with the Safari Camping Club a few hours earlier and while they felt conditions were very strict, they understood why they were necessary.

The site had been occupied for about 20 years, and had turned from a caravan park (without any form of regulatory framework) to a shanty town of rundown caravans and fixed structures.

The government cleared the site last October.

As the Gnejna direct action was underway, several caravan owners turned up to remove their caravan and initially parked them in the parking area once the operation began.

The land and caravan owners were served with an enforcement notice last year following the change of use of the stretch of land next to the beach into a caravan site without any permits. Although the caravans were removed last October and the site restored to its original status, a number of caravans once again reappeared over the past weeks. In the past month Mepa informed land owners that action would be taken without any further notification.

Over the coming days the area will be constantly monitored by MEPA enforcement officers.

Caravan owners which were obliged to leave their regular spot at Gnejna Bay may now join the Safari camping club at Bahar ic- Caghaq.

A couple of months ago, the Resources Ministry also made an application to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority for a proper caravan park with amenities in Zonqor Point, Marsascala. This application is currently being evaluated by Mepa.

The government is also assessing the possibility of more caravan sites in the future.

In a separate statement about its work issued yesterday, MEPA said it decided 328 development applications and received 554 new applications in May. The net pending caseload at the end of the month was 4,833.

Last month, the Authority processed 73 notifications of development, which, according to the Development Notification Order 2007, do not require a formal application.

In May 2009, MEPA issued 12 contraventions to developers on sites that were breaching Construction Site Management Regulations. These contraventions were related to the lack of hoarding and screening around building sites and not affixing of notice boards on-site. These fines amounted to a total of e2,795.16. Inspectors also issued a total of 31 other contraventions, amounting to e11,006.15, to individuals who were found breaching the Littering Act. In this case fines were mainly issued for the illegal depositing of refuse near public skips.

During the same month, 83 Stop and Enforcement notices were issued, 63 in Malta and 20 in Gozo. The enforcement section within MEPA closed 110 cases, 87 in Malta and 23 in Gozo. Thirty other enforcement cases were sanctioned by a planning permit while another 75 cases were resolved by the owners’ decision to remove their illegal development and comply with the enforcement notice.