Six maps do not lie

Edwin Camilleri's dismay that his Malta Environment and Planning Authority outline permit to demolish the house at 1, Ghar il-Lembi Street, Sliema has been sent back for reconsideration must be why he seems to have missed the statement at the hearing that the Mepa boards could not agree that the demolition should go ahead. Therefore it seems that the outline development permit was not endorsed as universally as he is claiming.

While I agree with him that the Mepa committees are composed of highly qualified professionals and experts, an expert is only infallible if given the right resources, which Mepa is unfortunately not in a position to supply. This might on occasion produce incomplete results as the Heritage Advisory Committee, which does its utmost under very trying conditions, is given a packed schedule of site visits for every inspection session. In such a rush, it is a great achievement to assess any of the sites before they merge into a blur, let alone being able to notice and evaluate the more subtle points of a building.

The guiding principle of any heritage management assessment is research and documentation. In fact, hard as they try, I doubt whether members of the Heritage Advisory Committee are given the chance to do any in-depth research on each site. At a DCC session I attended, one of the members admitted she could not even recall the house, and then immediately had to vote on it!

Similarly the system is only as rigorous as Mr Camilleri says, if it cannot be abused of. No matter what Mr Camilleri maintains, regulations such as the Cultural Heritage Act preclude such old houses within the UCA from being demolished outright.

I have certainly never claimed to be an expert as Mr Camilleri states, however I do dispose of one commodity that Mepa cannot grant its experts, and that is time - the time to find the Don Gabriele Loretta will of 1698 in the Notarial Archives and the maps at the National Library and in the Albert Ganado.

These maps show houses in that part of High Street from 1728 to 1815, and clearly prove that my insistence that Baroque-period houses existed in Sliema is not the myth that Mr Camilleri claims it is.

The "credible experts' certifications" paid for by Mr Camilleri state that the house dates from 1880-1920 (the Art Nouveau period) as they claim that Sliema was not much built up before 1850, however a map of 1853 indicates most of the streets from High Street to the Strand in their present formation, a process of decades and not just three years!

As for the house having none of the characteristics I mentioned, anyone with eyes in his head can see the house's vernacular (simple) Baroque door-surround and single corbel balcony. It is 1920s Art Nouveau features that are certainly missing!

Contrary to Mr Camilleri's claim that I have deliberately distorted the facts, my claims are based on maps in national collections, factual observations corroborated by photographic documentation of the house, and Mepa's own regulations printed on its website. I am sure Mepa officials are most capable of verifying these sources and interpreting them in the context of the urban conservation area regulations and the Cultural Heritage Protection Act. I would also remind Mr Camilleri that it is not I, but Mepa who will decide the fate of his project.

May I point out to Mr Camilleri that, although he vents all his spleen on me, I have not been alone in my misguided efforts, as the Sliema council, Din l-Art Helwa, Alternattiva Demokratika and neighbours have all spoken up against the demolition of this house.

The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage itself has written to Mepa saying: "Superintendence notes with great concern that the issue of this permit sanctions the demolition of a building that has cultural heritage significance". Are we all deliberately misguiding and misleading the public?

Mr Camilleri's statement that I have never spoken up against other developments is also misinformed. Had he bothered to check with Mepa and the media, he would have discovered that my efforts to save Sliema's heritage go back over a decade.

Only I have never before experienced such blatant attempts to intimidate the public from speaking up in defence of their environment for fear of being publicly ridiculed, to put the man in the street off his right to object to a Mepa application, and to gag a journalist from informing the public.

I will not even bother to threaten Mr Camilleri with libel as I have full faith in the public being able to see through such bullying tactics.