opinion

Summer madness

DAVID PACE EXPLAINS THAT TRYING TO HAVE A RELAXING DAY OUT AT THE BEACH HAS BECOME QUITE A CHALLENGE

Summer has begun and the joyful noise of jackhammers greets the tourists while the sweet smell of roasting tarmac lures them to sample Maltese cuisine.

Once again, Malta is experiencing a major upheaval during the best three months of the year, when tourists flock to our islands to fill up our empty coffers.

And what a greeting they’re getting! Disruptive roadworks, poisoned seas, contaminated beaches … all the delights of an eco-friendly island bang in the middle of the Mediterranean patiently waiting to become a member of the esteemed European Union.

For once, I’m going to leave tourists alone and focus on the plight of the fellow Maltese bather who just had half the coastline confiscated and is busy grumbling Maltese style and is still swimming in the contaminated waters, thinking "out of sight is out of mind!"

When visiting the beach, the thing I hate most may seem to be relatively petty until you’ve experienced it.

I hate those selfish seaside concerns who think they own the beach and who early in the morning start staking out umbrellas and laying out sunbeds without leaving any space for those bathers who do not want their pesky service!

The worst thing is that the beach is full of unoccupied umbrellas and sunbeds and you’re desperately trying to find a place to squeeze into to settle down among the masses. As soon as you lay your things beneath the empty umbrellas or sunbeds, someone comes running asking you to pay or move.

Twice I took out the umbrellas and moved the sunbeds to make space for my family’s things and a youngster came running and gruffly told me to leave the umbrellas alone. I refused to listen, gave him a piece of my mind and thoroughly ruined my seaside siesta!

This is a byproduct of a pathetic country which runs on the motto of "might is right!" I’m sure you’ll visit Ghadira Bay during the next few months and notice the power game between the two groups of umbrella and sunbed owners competing for space on the beach. You will also notice umbrella and sunbedless people squeezing and filling the gaps between them.

If you have your own umbrella, one of the wise guys will try to edge you out by bringing a bunch of tourists and laying the sunbed and sticking the umbrella almost in your space. A ploy to get you fed up in the hope that maybe you’ll make a space for a couple more tourists.

At Ghadira Bay, the police station lies opposite and the policeman just has to walk by the bay to realise how blatantly these businesses are breaking the law by placing the umbrellas and sunbeds on the beach before they are hired and beyond their limits.

No wonder it’s becoming common to see the police mediating between the ‘umbrella’ workers and some beachgoer who has had enough of their arrogance and attitude.

Complaining to the mayor

Last year, I listened to the Mellieha mayor answer a couple of telephone calls on a local radio station. A citizen phoned and complained that the umbrella hiring businesses were taking over the beach and leaving little space for the people.

The mayor answered that the business concerns have the necessary permits to place the umbrellas and sunbeds on the beach. The concerned citizen was adamant and kept insisting that they shouldn’t be allowed to appropriate the entire beach. The mayor was polite enough to answer that he was ready to supply his mobile phone number so that the citizen could inform him if the umbrella suppliers were abusing the rules of their permit.

In a supposedly civilised and quasi-European country like ours, must a citizen be expected to privately phone the mayor to get a place on a beach?

Shouldn’t beaches be surveyed by the police or wardens?

We have reached a state where the law is upheld only if an abuse is reported and this is a pitiful state of affairs.

Last year, there was a lot of grumbling on the radio and many letters in the newspapers against the umbrella and sunbed hiring companies who act as if they own public beaches. The authorities are quick to stamp down on Joe Public, but seem very sluggish when it comes to big businesses or hotels.

There were also continuous reports of coastal abuse ranging from hotels that closed access to the sea, a snack-bar that was given public land at Ta’ Xbiex and the famous case of a restaurant at Tal-Fekruna whose owner refused to provide access to the sea and who had to be forced to do so. Let’s hope this summer is better.

Tax evasion

Mr John Dalli, please take note!

It has been made clear that everybody must pay VAT and provide a receipt … with one exception … those who hire out umbrellas and sunbeds.

If you buy an ice cream from a kiosk on the beach, you will get a receipt even for the smallest 30 cent ice cream. If you hire an umbrella and a sunbed, which usually cost between Lm3 and Lm4 you are never given a receipt.

Simple mathematics shows that if they hire 100 umbrellas and 100 sunbeds every day between July and September, they make about Lm30,000! You would quickly realise that this is a conservative estimate and during the peak season, the total sum may reach Lm50,000.

A total of 15% VAT on Lm30,000 is Lm4,500, quite a hefty sum, and almost enough to provide a wage for one of those "extra" civil service employees! And yet, no receipts are ever supplied by umbrella dealers. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and experienced it with my own hands.

A friend of mine is an ice-cream vendor on one of the popular beaches. He explained that VAT inspectors visit him frequently and make his life quite difficult. Do the VAT inspectors visit the umbrella hiring businesses on the same beaches? If they do, why do these businesses never provide a receipt for services rendered?