Monti hawkers suspect that the government plans to get rid of half of them, paying out €50,000 in return for giving up their licences, The Malta Independent has learned.

Monti Hawkers Association lawyer Claire Bonello said that the word on the grapevine is that the government wants to halve the number of stalls from 75 to about 40.

Dr Bonello said she has been sending emails regularly to Minister Chris Cardona and the Prime Minister asking for an update regarding the monti relocation issue, but has been repeatedly ignored.

This contradicts what Minister Cardona told this newspaper, that the Ministry is meeting with the relevant stakeholders to find a solution to the relocation and the monti design stalls.

Dr Bonello, said: “I do not know of any discussions that are taking place. Either that, or the government does not believe that the relevant stakeholders include the hawkers.”

“I can confirm that there was no communication between us and the government since at least three months ago. I have no knowledge of such discussions.”

Confronted by this newspaper, Minister Cardona was very reluctant to elaborate on the future plans for the monti.

Minister has stall designs at hand

Dr Chris Cardona confirmed that he has the final monti stalls design at hand and that he had no problem with publishing them. However, pressed by this newspaper, Minister Cardona was evasive in explaining why they have not published yet.

The ministry later told this newspaper that it will be revealing the design “at the opportune moment.”

“We are still in discussions and will reveal everything, including the relocation plans and the design, as a whole package at a later stage”, a spokesperson said.

However, no one knows when or if discussions are actually taking place.

“If such discussions are taking place, it is definitely not with monti hawkers,” said Dr Bonello.

Monti hawkers are still in limbo, expecting some sort of closure to the relocation issue. Dr Bonelli said monti hawkers were not were not even shown the original design for the stalls, which were widely dismissed as tacky and flimsy by all and sundry.

“Let’s hope things don’t repeat themselves and have monti hawkers completely uninformed about the new design”.

The Minister could not even confirm whether the monti will move to Ordinance Street, as promised by the Labour Party before the last general election.