PN welcomes Armier eviction notice

The Nationalist Party has welcomed a court decision that sanctioned an eviction order by the Commissioner of Lands to remove 12 boathouses at Armier.

"This legal case was originally instituted following an eviction order instituted by the Commissioner of Lands during the previous legislature, led by a Nationalist Government. The Nationalist Party now expects the Labour government to honour the ruling delivered yesterday," MP Claudio Grech told MaltaToday yesterday.

The PN has joined the chorus of voices supporting the removal of the 12 boathouses, although it is yet to be seen whether they will agree with wider evictions demanded by the environmental lobby.

MaltaToday today reports that the Commissioner of Lands actually asked the court to have the proceedings stayed, so that it could reach an out-of-court settlement: a sign that the Labour government wanted to reach an agreement with Armier Developments soon after the March 2013 elections.

The government is now considering sanctioning "environmentally sound" boathouses, according to comments by Armier Developments Ltd director Tarcisio Barbara.

Judge Anthony Ellul declared this week that a written communication exchanged between the government and Armier Developments Ltd, the company representing the Armier boathouse 'squatters', was not deemed to be a binding contract, ordering the illegal constructions to be immediately evicted.

Ellul held that the caravans and illegal constructions at Armier were built on public land and very close to the foreshore. "Any transfer of public land has to be carried out in terms of law and the foreshore cannot be privatised... Transfer of land on shores for the building of caravans can only be by title of rent for less than 10 years."

Both the Nationalist and Labour administrations have forged pre-electoral agreements with Armier Developments Ltd, guaranteeing some form of permanence for the illegal developments.