President of the Ramblers Association Ingram Bondin told TVM that a path to the beach was never properly formed given the erosion of clay slopes along the bay. 

Discussions have been going on for the last year and alternative paths that lead to the smaller and larger beaches have been identified – providing a route all along the coast of Gnejna. 

Bondin added that the interventions to create the path should be reversible and respect the Natura 2000 site, encouraging thee government and the owner to agree on terms as soon as possible.

Controversy over public access to the bay erupted in January 2021 after bollards and signs were erected restricting people from visiting the site. And while issues were supposedly addressed immediately, signs continued to be erected while landowners clashed with visitors. 

Fomm ir-Riħ itself has been somewhat dangerous to visitors following a clay slop collapse in August 2020, which effectively covered a significant part of the bay.

However, a 1983 deed “establishes gratuitously as from the date of this deed in favour of the Government, on whose behalf the Commissioner of Lands accepts, a perpetual right and access therefrom to the foreshore and the sea over a divided portion of land situated in the locality of Fomm ir-Rih, in the limits of Imgarr, Malta”.