Hope rises for a better upkeep at Fort St Elmo

Recent works by the government to improve the "sorry state" of Lower Fort St Elmo has been welcomed by Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna (FWA).

Foundation chairman Mario Farrugia expressed hope that this would not be a simple publicity exercise or a short-term marketing drive for the music activity being held there but the "beginning of a new page in the not all too satisfactory maintenance history of this fort".

Mr Farrugia said it was good to note that a security guard service has been installed at the gate leading into the complex, which should bring a stop to the movement of unauthorised persons into this place, as has been the norm so far.

"A good part of the last decade was spent by FWA calling for action in this regard without much success, save for the periodic cleaning drives carried out from time to time by the Valletta Rehabilitation Project. FWA now calls for a suitable use to be found for the entire fort, not just its lower part," he said.

Mr Farrugia said the management issue of Fort St Elmo should be tackled as a whole and not in parts as was wrongly done at Fort St Angelo, which now forestalls the imaginative use of that fort on feasible lines.

"Tackling Fort St Elmo as a whole should in no way preclude the inclusion of diverse functions and uses to its different areas," he said.

Mr Farrugia said the success behind the new re-development of this fort lay in the imagination and determination of whoever was to go for it. He said the fort was far too big to serve solely as a museum, but other uses, possibly more profitable ones, should be added in order to make the whole effort economically feasible.

"Nevertheless, the government is to see that only sympathetic uses to the historic nature and characteristics of this fort are adopted. No gross mistakes of the kind allowed to ruin Fort Chambray in Gozo are to be repeated. Furthermore, great importance is to be given to the restoration of all parts of the fort and not simply those parts that will be used for money spinning. Similarly, the government is to insist on the employment of on-going maintenance of the property so as to ensure that its state is always pristine," he stressed.

Mr Farrugia said the blame for the current poor state of the fort lay "squarely and collectively on our shoulders as a nation".

"But FWA is confident that with the right set of minds, the right degree of political will and perhaps the right sympathetic private partners, the fortunes of Fort St Elmo can be turned once again in its favour," he said.