Maltese Man Disappointed After Finding Blue Lagoon Packed With Deckchairs On A Quiet Monday Morning
A Maltese man has described his experience at Comino’s Blue Lagoon last Monday, stating he ended up in argument with a worker for removing two deckchairs to place his towel on the bay.
“I decided to spend a peaceful day at Comino last Monday. It was the last day of October and I chose Monday precisely to avoid queues and deckchairs,” Patrick Attard said.
“I arrived at 9:20am and was the first person at Blue Lagoon. I couldn’t see anyone else there but I was faced with a barrage of empty deckchairs so close to each other that if one sunbather had to sneeze, the droplets would hit three other people.”
Patrick said he folded two deckchairs, placed them by the side and laid his towel on the bay, but after a while an African man working for a deckchair operator approached him.
“Nothing against him, he was doing his job, but he came up to be and started shouting ‘U ejja Madonna, you cannot do that’. I tried to explain to them that it is against the law to place empty deckchairs on a public bay but we got nowhere and started shouting at each other.”
“Tourists started looking at us and I wanted the ground to swallow me up. I told him I will call the police and he told me to do so. In my heart, I began wondering how on earth we will find police on Comino.”
He left me in peace but after a while, a Maltese man approached me and said that they would have removed the deckchairs without a problem had I informed them in advance. I didn’t want to create a scene but it’s true that I didn’t see anyone when I arrived not he bay… anyway that was it.”
Patrick said that while he understands the need for businesses to make a profit and that some beachgoers would like to rent out an umbrella or deckchair, he cannot stomach such a blatant take-up of public land.
“This culture of ‘I come first, second and third’ isn’t good for the nation,” he warned. “Is it right for a cleaner on a minimum wage to have to spend €40 [to rent out deckchairs] just to spend a day at the Blue Lagoon with his wife?”
A protest at Blue Lagoon last summer
“Is it right for a nurse to have to spend €80 to go to Blue Lagoon with his wife and two young children? So nurses don’t have financial problems, just so long as we cheer them on from our balconies? Is that what the workers’ party believes?”
“This attitude of egoism, bullying and grabbing whatever you can isn’t good for the country. What are we going to leave future generations of these three island gems? Concrete and trash? God forbid a war had to erupt in Malta; can you imagine us trying to maintain a queue at a supermarket or collecting water? Can we have some sense of order and community?”
Blue Lagoon was at the centre of protests last summer, with activists from Moviment Graffitti carrying out direct actions, removing deckchairs and umbrellas from the bay to demonstrate against the take-up of public land.
Activists demanded that deckchairs and umbrellas should only be set up at the request of people and should never occupy more than 30% of the area at Blue Lagoon.
Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo told Times of Malta that “things will be different” next summer and that the deckchair and umbrella issues won’t repeat themselves.
Cover photos: Patrick Attard
Should there be a limit on deckchair and umbrella usage at Blue Lagoon?
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