Popeye village at Anchor Bay – never legal!

Article amended on 22 July: the reference to Riviera Beach in Ghajn Tuffieha was amended to refer to Golden Bay in Ghajn Tuffieha.

Golden Bay beach at Ghajn Tuffieha cannot be awarded the coveted Blue Flag status for Europe’s best beaches because of illegal structures inside the bay.

This was confirmed by Michael Falzon, the newly appointed parliamentary secretary responsible for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on TVM’s Reporter, hosted by Saviour Balzan.

“It’s no secret that much of MEPA’s work is controversial. I think one has to look at the past – not to ‘forgive’ what is wrong – but to recognise that the abuse on the coastline has been ongoing for over 40 years,” Falzon said.

“One of the things we have kick-started and that still needs working upon is a policy on unsanctioned lidos and kiosks. At present, we are cleaning up the roads from illegal billboards.

“We need to look forward in a holistic manner: not to legalise that which is impossible to legalise, but to have clear guidelines. I don’t exclude the possibility that in future, we will have a policy on certain lidos and kiosks in certain places.”

Golden Bay can only be awarded ‘Beach of Quality’ status because it fulfils just 70% of Blue Flag requirements.

Under Criterion 13 of the Blue Flag authority – the Foundation for Environmental Education in Europe – any facilities on the beach must be in compliance with planning regulations.

Falzon pointed out as an example the former set of the 1980 movie Popeye, starring Robin Williams, which today is the tourist attraction Popeye Village in Anchor Bay: the structure is illegal in its entirety.

“Popeye Village is a tourist attraction and we must decide on how to deal with it. We should be looking at these issues on a case-by-case basis, and where we can clean up illegalities, someone needs to have the guts to do that.”

Falzon says a distinction will have to be made between structures whose illegality may have been overlooked over a long period of years, and recent structures that were served with enforcement notices “Should we remove all of Popeye Village? All of it is illegal. It has been there several years. Then there are other places where enforcement notices have been served. Small kiosks that started out with a permit that then went on to build a small store room.”

Falzon also said that Malta was losing the Blue Flag status for Ghajn Tuffieha because of the abuses of one person. “This is not right. I am committed to preventing this from happening next summer.”

Balzan put it to Falzon that politicians were facing lobbies demanding that their irregular establishments are regularised by the planning authority. “More than a lobby, I think it is a matter of attitude that has gone on for years,” Falzon said.

“Everyone thinks that one particular lobby is calling the shots. I don’t think that is always the case.

“I will say ‘no’ if someone knocks on my door. I’m not the only one. Recently we stopped accepting semi-basements, a commitment we made and which developers accused us of having changed the goalposts. But it was a commitment to improve quality of life and we did it.”