Local councillors in touristic localities have highlighted their concerns with authority inaction against restaurants which encroach on public pavements and their fears that the waste issues experienced over summer will rear their head again next year.

The non-governmental organisation “Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar” (FAA) held a conference on Wednesday dedicated to discussing the worsening quality of life in touristic localities.

Present for this press conference were Astrid Vella on behalf of FAA, Bjorn Bonello, the Environment Officer from the Northern Region, Sliema mayor John Pillow, St. Julian’s mayor Guido Dalli, and John Baptist Camilleri, who is a Marsascala councillor and resident.

FAA’s co-founder Astrid Vella opened this press conference by asking if the term “quality of life” has become the latest buzzword for political parties as councillors expressed their frustration towards how the results of overpopulation and lack of enforcement are plaguing their localities and fellow residents.

Vella clarified that the sentiment behind this press conference is not to single out tourists as culprits, but that tourists and foreign workers alike are more likely to go stay in touristic localities over other places. It was expressed that residents’ quality of life is worsening as overpopulation increases without adequate cooperation with government authorities. In this regard, she highlighted that tourism “needs to double to fill just 80%” of all hotel beds in the country; Malta attracts just under 2.5 million tourists annually.

Bjorn Bonello described how present infrastructure within popular regions has limitations when it comes to invoking positive change unless action is taken. He proposed for active travel and alternative modes of transport to be prioritised, however, he said that “basic necessities are still lacking in our infrastructure”.

Bonello described how it is “common to see tables and chairs that people must weave through blocking pavements.” This point was reiterated by Sliema mayor Pillow, St. Julian’s mayor Dalli, and Marsascala councillor John Baptist Camilleri throughout the conference. Collectively, they criticized the lack of enforcement from the authorities to punish restaurants from encroaching upon these public spaces.

This point was reiterated by Vella and Pillow, with the latter describing how ambulances and fire engines struggle to reach places requiring emergency aid in the area due to the high levels of traffic and lack of pavement space in the area; to contextualize the gravity of the situation, they spoke about how paramedics could not guide a Sliema resident out of their residence on a stretcher due to nearby restaurants taking up the pavement area.

Bonello then discussed the “alarming” increase in population, saying that overdevelopment is reaching extreme levels, and implying that this outlook is promoting even further overpopulation. To highlight the critical nature of this situation in populous localities, Bonello said that “refuse rooms are being sold as separate accommodation in St. Paul’s Bay.”

Bonello, who is the environment officer for the Northern Regional Council, also said that the “impact on traffic from this is never mitigated”. He said that due to an absence in “holistic planning over the last 10 years”, parking spaces in St. Paul’s Bay now account for 20km of land space within the north-eastern town. In this light, Bonello said that so much parking on both sides of the road “precludes the possibility to insert measures for residents on active mobility”.

St. Julian’s mayor Guido Dalli highlighted the waste issue that has thrashed his town in recent times. He criticized the government, saying that they “failed to account for the fact that, in the last decade, the number of foreigners in Malta increased by 120,000”. Dalli henceforth called for such regions to be treated separately and scrap the “one-size-fits-all” approach for all Maltese and Gozitan localities.

To tackle the waste issue, Dalli wishes to be able to receive a list of residents directly from their condominium managers in order to bypass the current difficulty to punish those not abiding by the waste collection schedule. He also mentioned the problem with short-let residents in this issue due to the ineffectiveness of fines (since the perpetrators behind recklessly leaving rubbish outside would be gone by the time the fine would be received).

“I fear that another summer will come, and this problem will return”, said mayor Dalli, “There is a sense that the issue is going to be evaded now that winter is approaching, and summer has passed”. He also said that it is “imminent” for summer to come and for everyone to “go back to square one” when the time comes.

He then called for households in Paceville to be granted a residential parking space each to provide a guarantee that these families can go out in the evenings without needing to worry about struggling to arrive back home afterwards. He also stated that works shall begin in St. Julian’s in January to expand upon the sewage infrastructure “to avoid disaster” due to the sprouting towers in the area.

Sliema mayor John Pillow delved into the lack of pavement space for residents, the constant stream of cigarette smoke going up towards residents’ balconies, and the ongoing noise pollution experienced by residents. “Why do residents need to suffer through this torture instead of living peacefully?”, Pillow lamented.

Referencing the described abuses by restaurants in occupying pavement space, the mayor described how they still occupy this space that was only meant to be given to them during the pandemic to cope with social distancing.

Pillow questioned the authorities’ inaction, asking if they are waiting for a tragedy to happen. The mayor described how a car had already driven into one of these restaurant spaces by the coastline recently, mentioning that fortunately, no-one was present when this accident happened.

“Where are the authorities? Where is the enforcement on the encroachment of public space to hold people accountable when they disobey these laws? Why should restaurants be allowed to take up parking spaces and parts of pavements to fit their tables and chairs?”, the mayor cried.

Marsascala councillor John Baptist Camilleri said that his southern town “is a newcomer to these problems”, saying that his locality is only experiencing a recent population boom after once being a quiet place. Camilleri recounted how in his childhood, Marsascala had a population of around 800 residents, rising up to 2000 in summer; he said that the number of registered residents is approaching 20,000.

He mentioned that Marsascala was the place that had the most accepted applications over a recent three-month period, saying that with the overpopulation already present in the northern regions, Marsascala is next in line to experience a population boom and lose its character in the future if things do not change. Resultantly, problems are developing within the area’s energy and sewage infrastructure.

“Once these developments are complete, the situation will be alarmingly bad”, Camilleri warned, “Marsascala is next to suffer the same fate as norther regions. Marsascala will lose its character if things do not change.”

Camilleri said that the situation on noise pollution, judging by the noise complaints received, is getting worse. Recounting that it is common for loud music to be played till 23:00, “there is no desire for these problems to be solved”.

Referencing the foreigners in the area, he expressed the difficulty to communicate with them since many “do not know either English or Maltese”.

After reiterating the area’s “total disregard for laws” and little enforcement upheld, he detailed the “disastrous state” the “abandoned” Sant’Antnin Family Park has been left in.

Concluding this conference, FAA’s Vella stated that they are not exclusively discussing the mentioned localities, though that all the aforementioned issues are occurring in other places across the Maltese islands, such as Gozo. She questioned to what extent the sleepless nights residents in these areas are experiencing are affecting the country’s productivity.