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local
news
Hundreds still stand in the Armier
republic
Authority
takes action in only 36% of cases
By Kurt
Sansone
The Armier area in Mellieha is riddled with hundreds of illegal
boathouses and makeshift structures that keep mushrooming year after
year.
The area has grown into a little village and yet the Planning Authority's
web site lists only some 35 boathouses, rooms, caravans or containers
as ‘development without permit'.
Information obtained from the PA reveals that the Authority has
demolished 77 boathouses since 1995. If one were to add these to
the 135 ‘official' illegal structures, it transpires that over
a five-year period the PA took concrete action in 36% of the cases.
A breakdown of the 135 pending enforcement notices shows that 49
cases go back to 1995 at the height of the boathouses controversy.
There were a further 32 notices issued between 1996-1999. Last year
the PA issued 37 enforcement orders, while over the last three months
14 more notices were added to the list.
In 1995, the authorities raided the area to demolish a number of
illegally built boathouses. The event turned out to be a complete
fiasco, when boathouse owners barricaded the zone and refused to
allow officials to pull down the illegal structures. The issue was
then relegated to the backburner as it was considered politically
sensitive.
The controversy has now returned, although it does not concern the
PA. In a separate course of action, the Lands Department issued
17 eviction orders against caravan owners in Little Armier. The
owners had until yesterday to evict the government site they occupy
illegally.
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