Valletta's heritage status

I refer to the story entitled No Plan To Revoke Valletta's Heritage Status - Unesco (May 4) stating that Unesco have no intention to revoke Valletta's World Heritage status. At no point in my speech to a seminar held two weeks ago did I state that Unesco has any intention to revoke our World Heritage status and therefore the title of this article and the question posed to Mechtild Rossler from Unesco is extremely unfair as it gives the impression that I made such a statement.

What I did state, and again confirm, is that our status is in the balance because procedures could be started to place Valletta on Unesco's World Heritage List in Danger in view of what is happening in and around Valletta. I also stated in my speech that this has happened in a number of other cities including Cologne where skyscrapers were planned 800 metres to one kilometre away from the cathedral. Tigné is much closer to Valletta.

It was also very unfair of the correspondent to tell Ms Rossler that I made "accusations". I made nothing of the sort. I only presented the facts based on my many years experience in the field. In fact I have made numerous evaluation and monitoring missions for world heritage sites for Unesco and other organisations. What she did confirm is that I have not made any presentation with Unesco because an NGO and individuals have already done so.

Furthermore the facts are that what is happening in Valletta is well known by others in this field.

Editor's note:
In the story, Dr Bondin was clearly quoted as having said that Valletta's status was being questioned in international circles. The Times did not intend to give any impression beyond that. The word "accusations" was used by Ms Rossler and the reporter was only quoting her.