Tables and chairs taking up public spaces has been an issue for several years, but the issue only became greater when restaurants were given a supposedly temporary concession during the Covid-19 pandemic to take up more outdoor spaces to make up for drops in capacity owing to social distancing rules in place at the time.

Except, what was supposed to be temporary was never actually reverted: restaurants retained the areas that they were granted - without having applied for planning permits on the most part - as they went back to their original indoor capacity.

The issue has now become a public hindrance.  Pavements and public spaces in tourist hotspots are impossible to navigate without having to treat the tables and chairs as an obstacle course and having to dodge waiters shoving menus in your face as you walk by.

What makes this worse is that there has been little to no action taken in order to rectify what is essentially the theft of public spaces by these businesses.

"What began as a commercial adaptation has become a systemic issue. The widespread and often irregular occupation of pavements undermines the principles of safe mobility, equal access, and public safety," the Office of the Ombudsman highlighted on Friday.

"Public pavements are public infrastructure, not private extensions of business premises. When blocked, they impede those who rely on mobility aids, affect parents with young children, and hinder access for emergency services," it continued.

"Obstructed pavements are not simply an inconvenience; they represent a failure to meet legal obligations and deny individuals their right to move about freely and safely," the Ombudsman's office said.

The Office of the Ombudsman makes it clear that the "unchecked spread" of tables, chairs, and related furniture in public areas as a serious and ongoing infringement on the rights of older persons, persons with disabilities, and families with young children.

This is a situation which has been tacitly allowed to fester by the authorities. Even in severe cases, like in St George's Square in Victoria, Gozo, where an ambulance was unable to enter the area because tables and chairs had blocked the road, the action was not to remove the offending tables and chairs, but to install an alarm button which would see operators have to listen and move the furniture should it ring.

The Office of the Ombudsman offered a raft of recommendations to address this situation.

Among these is a recommendation that the Lands Authority publishes a full and transparent list of all concessions granted for use of public land, including pavements.  This type of transparency is extremely important, and is the first step for people to actually hold those illegally taking up pavements to be held to account, be it by reporting them or boycotting those establishments, should they feel morally inclined to do so.

"Local Councils and local enforcement bodies must be empowered and resourced to carry out frequent, verifiable inspections. They must act on public complaints and have clear authority to remove illegal obstructions promptly. Consistent enforcement is critical to deterring abuse," the Office also recommended.

This is in particular is a good recommendation: local councils are the entities which will receive the first set of complaints, and they know their locality best, so they should be empowered to be able to act.

There are several other positive proposals put forward by the Ombudsman.  Now what remains is to see whether the government will be inclined to take them up and so to start addressing these abuses, hopefully once and for all.