Scores of illegally built boathouses dot the St Thomas Bay area in Marsascala but despite the glaring infringement of the law the Planning Authority web site only lists eight enforcement orders for the zone.

And according to Parliamentary Secretary George Pullicino, the government has no intention of exerting pressure on the Planning Authority to tackle the blatant abuse. Meanwhile, the government continues to muscle in on the owners of the Armier boathouses, who are accusing the authorities of adopting ‘two weights, two measures’ tactics.

The longest standing enforcement orders at St Thomas Bay date back to 1998, when two notices were issued for ‘rooms without permit’. Two enforcement orders per year were then issued by the PA for a total of eight structures, over four years.

In addition, a bar located in the area has an enforcement order dating back to 1998 for building a wall and porch without the necessary permits.

The illegal structures at St Thomas Bay were built on private land and the responsibility to take action lies squarely on the PA’s shoulders. The situation is slightly different in Armier because the boathouses were built on government land thus putting the onus on the government to evict the boathouse owners who occupied the land illegally.

Over the years action or rather attempted action has always been directed toward the boathouse owners in Armier, raising the obvious question of why the boathouses in the south were left untouched.

In fact, just last week, members of the committee representing the boathouses in Armier said that while they were willing to discuss future proposals with the government, they would like to see the authorities take similar action against illegally-built boathouses in other parts of the island and the numerous hotel lidos constructed without permits.

The issue seems to have sensitive political undertones because while the Armier boathouse owners hale from different localities all over the island the majority of boathouse owners in St Thomas Bay come from Zejtun.

Political analysts point out that the concentration of people from one particular electoral district, as found in St Thomas Bay, would prove disastrous for any political party at the polls given our district-based electoral system.

Asked to comment, George Pullicino denied that he felt the Armier boathouse owners were being picked on.

"Successive governments have been harshly criticised for not being effective at enforcing the law at Armier," the parliamentary secretary said. "This site is by far the largest single area in the Maltese Islands where illegal development has been carried out on a massive scale."

Mr Pullicino also stressed that the government had a duty to give the Armier boathouse issue a priority since the development was on government land.

"It is therefore not just a matter of illegal development, whether it happens in the north or south. It is also a matter of illegal occupation of land owned by the government," he said. "If the government did not deal with the Armier illegality, then it would have been criticised for not putting its own house in order and of not having enough courage to deal with the larger problems."

Asked whether there were plans in the pipeline to deal with other abusers, Mr Pullicino first stressed that the systematic demolition of illegal structures over the past three years has surpassed any past achievements.

"Whoever has a development permission need not worry that some day action will be taken against the development," he pledged. "On the other hand, the government cannot give any guarantee to anyone that action will not be taken against all illegal development irrespective of ownership or location."

When asked whether the Ministry could have exerted more pressure on the Planning Authority to tackle the problem of the St Thomas boathouses, Mr Pullicino distanced the government from the PA.

"The government does not intend to interfere in the daily operations of the PA and pinpoint to it which illegal development should be demolished and when," he said.