State Heritage Violations

Flimkien għal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA) strongly condemns the irreversible damage caused by the
illuminate the Auberge de Castille. The Auberge is supposedly protected by Structure Plan Grade 1
scheduling: “These buildings are of outstanding architectural or historical interest that shall be preserved in their
entirety. Demolition or alterations which impair the setting or change the external or internal appearance…will
not be allowed.”
This law was blatantly ignored by the very persons responsible for protecting our nation’s heritage who hurriedly
approved this highly sensitive project in 24 hours, instead of scrutinising it properly to ensure correct practice. In
so doing the authorities have violated the Heritage Act which stipulates that the State in Malta has “The duty to
protect, the duty to conserve, maintain, restore and to intervene whenever deemed fit, including in
circumstances of misuse, lack of conservation or application of wrong conservation methods”.

The Heritage Act also establishes that “It shall be the function of the Superintendent to promote and ensure the
best policies, standards and practices in the conservation and presentation of artefacts, museums, buildings,
monuments and sites;… Before determining an application … the Superintendent may require such information
including the results of such tests, examinations or inspection … as he may consider necessary. Any person who
wilfully, or through negligence, unskillfulness or non-observance of regulations causes damage to or destroys any
cultural property … shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine
(multa)…not exceeding €116,468.67, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six years, or to both such fine
and imprisonment.”
In recent years such cases have shamefully multiplied – in September 2103 MEPA granted a permit to build a
house within the boundary of the Ta’ Ħagrat Temples, a World Heritage Site. Thankfully, following FAA pressure,
that permit is now inoperable. MEPA had also approved a massive development on the Zbibu lane archaeological
site, just 50 metres from an archaeological buffer zone. In October 2014 MEPA granted a permit for the building
of a telecommunications tower on the Victoria Lines, a protected Grade 1 monument set in an Area of High
Landscape Value. More recently, FAA’s enquiries about the structure being built at Haywharf were dismissed on
the grounds of it being a national security project. The carbuncle that sprung up there could have been built in a
presently unused and less conspicuous part of the Grand Harbour, instead of ruining Floriana’s bastions vista, a
prime tourist area designated for a quality yachting project.

In all of these projects Malta’s laws have been blatantly violated by MEPA, the responsibility of Parliamentary
Secretary Dr Michael Falzon, who operates out of the Office of the Prime Minister. Shockingly, none of these
developments were opposed by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, which is responsible for ensuring that
restoration works are carried out correctly. Will these two, as the competent authorities, fine themselves?  The
silence of the Superintendence and the dormant Committee of Guarantee is outrageous in the face of the rape of
our heritage.

The Heritage Act emphasises the need to “promote public awareness of the richness and extent of cultural
heritage as an intrinsic part of humankind’s environment, and of the need to prevent the debasement of cultural
heritage assets” Who will watch the watchman if the watchman has betrayed the cause?