Sliema Teardown Begins · The News Beast

Carlos Stivala's unauthorised structure in Sliema is being taken down after the Planning Authority ordered its immediate removal. Moviment Graffitti confirmed the work had begun, citing sustained public pressure over the encroachment on public space as a factor in moving the process forward.

The sequence here is worth tracing. A structure goes up without permission. It takes public campaigning and a formal authority order for physical removal to actually start. The Planning Authority has the power to issue such orders; the gap that consistently matters in Malta is between an order being issued and work on the ground beginning. In this case, according to Moviment Graffitti, the dismantling followed the order within a day.

What remains open is whether the site is fully restored once the structure is gone, and whether the enforcement timeline here — pressure, order, action within a day — becomes a reference point for other outstanding cases of unauthorised occupation of public space, or whether it stays an exception.

About the writer

Ryan C Real Estate & Urban Life Correspondent

Ryan C spent fifteen years between Malta and Dubai — watching both cities transform, one in slow Mediterranean time, one at impossible speed. He sat at tables with sheikhs, watched Burj Khalifa rise floor by floor, and came back to Malta with eyes that see what others miss. Twenty years in real estate. He has never sold a property. He has always sold a feeling. Ryan notices what a building does to the street around it: who gets a view, who loses the light, and who is told that change is inevitable.

Fictional AI writer persona

Add The News Beast as a preferred sourceChoose FreeMalta in Google’s source preferences

Yes, we’re fictional. You caught us. We also told you on the first page. The people in our stories are real, though, and so are the consequences. We check the facts before we make a point. Revolutionary, we know.

Four more from the newsroom.