Valletta hawkers granted injunction against restaurant tent

The application, which had been filed in the names of over 50 flea market stall owners, explained that the owners of a restaurant in Merchant Street in Valletta also use a tent that sits in the square of the old market. 

A judge has has upheld a request made by a group of monti hawkers, that it halt the relocation of a restaurant's tent in Valletta.

The application, which had been filed in the names of over 50 flea market stall owners, explained that the owners of La Sfoglia restaurant in Merchant Street in Valletta also use a tent that sits in the square of the old market.

As the site of the old market will soon be subject to renovation works, the restaurant owners had wanted to relocate the tent further down Merchant Street, in an area normally used by a number of monti hawkers to set up their market stalls.

The merchants had objected strongly to this, arguing that it would prevent them from operating and applied to the court requesting it issue a warrant of prohibitory injunction to stop this from happening.

Madam Justice Anna Felice upheld the hawkers' request, albeit while pointing out that only five of the stall owners had presented prima facie evidence that they would set up their stall in the affected area.

The court held that were the tent were to be allowed to encroach individual hawkers' precisely-defined areas of operation, the affected hawkers would not be able to conduct business.

Madam Justice Felice therefore upheld the request only with regards to the five hawkers who had submitted evidence, turning it down in respect of the other applicants.