During a press conference on Saturday morning, Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahar, with the participation of ten other NGOs, highlighted the “marked deterioration and gross inconsistencies in the quality of reports coming out of the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage.”
Speaking at the press conference, FAA’s Astrid Vella stated that,in the case of the Sliema heritage house dating to around 1725 at the corner of High Street and St Paul Street, the Superintendence’s approval on planning grounds that “don’t hold water, became clear to us when we learnt that the former, sound officials working at the SCH have been swept aside in favour of staff coming out of the Planning Authority, with a strong pro-development bias.”
She argued that, “the scenario is even worse in the cases bordering Valletta’s Area of High Landscape Value (AHLV). The MIDI Manoel Island project, the Excelsior extension and the Gzira/Ta’ Xbiex Capitanerie, all fall within the AHLV and the Valletta Harbour Fortifications Network, submitted by Malta as a tentative site for World Heritage status, however they will all have a strong negative impact on Valletta’s World Heritage Site status and it is shocking that the SCH did not take a stronger stand on the Excelsior extension.”
Ms Vella pointed out that UNESCO has been asking Malta to submit it’s Valletta buffer and Valletta Management Plan since 2010, however these have not been forthcoming. “Under the UNESCO conditions, Malta was to consult UNESCO about a major projects in and around Valletta, and FAA is reliably informed that UNESCO has voiced its concerns to the Authorities here, but this is being kept hidden from the public.”
“For that reason, FAA is submitting a Freedom of Information request to have access to this correspondence, and communicating its concerns to UNESCO,” said Ms Vella.
The organisations supporting this call are:
EXTINCTION REBELLION
FLIMKIEN GHAL AMBJENT AHJAR
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH MALTA
GHAWDIX
MALTA-ARCH
MALTA TOURISM SOCIETY
MOVIMENT GRAFFITTI
RAMBLERS’ ASSOCIATION OF MALTA
ROTA
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY MALTA
WIRT GHAWDEX.
Photos FAA: show Sliema’s St Paul Street existing and proposed view