With an ever decreasing amount of space in the countryside and the country's green spaces left to be taken over by the country's agents of greed, it appears that they have now decided to turn to Malta's beaches.

The take-up of Malta's beaches by commercial entities has been a bone of contention over the course of several summers. 

Back in the days of the erstwhile Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, he faced an issue over deckchair encroachment by operators in Ghadira Bay.  Naturally, this was far from the most significant issue that he faced during his tenure in government, but we digress.

Today's Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo for more than one summer has faced questions over concessions granted in Comino, which has seen over-crowding to the Nth degree.  It took protestors having to physically go to Blue Lagoon in Comino for the government to actually do something about it - and even then, what the government did is widely seen as not being enough.

Now there are new issues: many rail at the take-up of space by an operator at Ghajn Tuffieha Bay, but more so at the take up of the Perched Beach in Bugibba by private operators.

Protestors who descended on the beach - which is an artificial one and replenished with sand every summer - noted how two-thirds of this public beach have been seized by tourism operators, reducing the public area to only a third of the beach.

They further noted how the Planning Authority has approved several plans for beach lidos here, meaning that the built-up area on the beach will only increase, and the area available for the public to enjoy without having to fall into the clutches of big businesses decreasing as a result.

In addition to the original €1.6 million of public funds spent to build this perched beach, this year, the MTA announced that over €900,000 were spent to replenish St George's Bay in St Julian's and the Buġibba "perched beach" with artificial sand, yet fully two-thirds of this beach paid for and maintained by the taxpayer has been given over to business barons, DB's Amazonia Lido, Nine Lives, and the Tumas Group's Dolmen Hotel, leaving the public packed on the remaining one-third, the NGOs said.

"This is far from the 'balance' that the government has been promising citizens. This perched beach is funded by the public for the public and not for private use," it added.

The fact of the matter is that the more time passes, the more people are being deprived from accessible public spaces that they can enjoy without having to pay for them. 

First it was the country's green spaces, now it's the country's beaches.  What are we going to have left that hasn't been commercialised?  What is left for families to actually enjoy? A good quality of life includes having open spaces to be able to relax in.  As things are, you can scarcely find a beach which hasn't been over-run by deckchairs, umbrellas, tables, or chairs.

The country needs a government which is courageous enough to stand firm and say once and for all: the public's space is for the public to enjoy, and not for a few people to profit over.