Valletta: A city betrayed

Three years ago, when I was still the executive president of Din l-Art Helwa, I made a plea on behalf of Valletta, which I called a city betrayed. I noted with the utmost concern that successive governments had largely neglected this once beautiful baroque city so that it was today a shabby, faded shadow of its former glory.

I called, inter alia, for the government to appoint one minister to be solely responsible for coordination and action in Valletta. This call was partly heeded and I believe that the Minister for Investments, Austin Gatt, himself a Valletta member of Parliament, was made responsible for the new traffic arrangements in the city and the successful introduction of the traffic congestion charge. The government is to be congratulated on this step, albeit more, clearly, remains to be done before a truly traffic-free city emerges and pedestrian zones predominate.

I also called for a structured approach to the conservation of Valletta which included a comprehensive action plan for the regeneration of the capital city over a period of 10 years, underpinned by the necessary financial resources. I advocated in no uncertain terms that this plan should first focus on making immediate improvements to the appearance and day-to-day quality of life of Valletta. I urged that, in parallel, the action plan should tackle the major projects of Fort St Elmo, the City Gate, the Opera House, Parliament and the fortifications of the city in a pragmatic, phased and incremental manner as financial resources allowed.

Sadly, although the Upper and Lower Barrakka and Hastings Gardens have been completed, paving in St John's Street and Merchants Streets is haltingly under way and obtrusive cables and wiring have been removed from most streets, the other basic issues - let alone the major projects - remain unfulfilled. (The wonderful Valletta Waterfront project is peripheral to the city of Valletta.)

Pavements are a hazard and a national disgrace. The overall lack of cleanliness and shabbiness of Valletta's streets are a crying shame. The entrance to the city has all the appearance of a Third World country on a bad day. The litter and dog excrement, the broken pavements and pot-holed streets (even though one or two have been resurfaced) are dangerous and offensive to the eye. Air-conditioning units still intrude on magnificent façades. Street lighting is poor. Many buildings are ill-lit, grimy and poorly maintained, in some cases abandoned. The flood lighting on the bastions is haphazard. Maintenance of the fortifications is deficient. The historic area around Fort St Elmo is an affront and an embarrassment.

As to the master plan for Valletta, which sets out a programme of implementation of the long-standing major projects, although one has been commissioned I understand that it will not itself recommend how the major issues of the Opera House site, the City Gate, Parliament and Fort St Elmo will be tackled but will merely propose that a "Task Group" will be set up to tackle these issues.

Over the last 50 years, successive governments have largely neglected this once beautiful city - in some cases adding their own excrescences, such as City Gate.

We have been privileged to inherit a city conceived and designed by men of vision; fashioned by architects of skill, imagination, flair and style; able to marry the overwhelming and powerful military origins of the city with the needs of civilised and noble inhabitants. Valletta is a historic and architectural gem, a legacy in stone. It bears vivid testimony to the standards, ambitions and grandeur set by foreign leaders of Malta - people who have left us art and architecture that is irreplaceable and endowed us with a history and culture that defines our European credentials.

What kind of a people are we , therefore, to spurn such a legacy, as we have done in the last four or five decades and to allow it to decay? Valletta has been betrayed. Today it forms a major part of our environmental deficit.

For a brief period we believed that the Prime Minister, with his apparent determination to do something about the relocation of Parliament to what is loosely referred to as the Opera House site, and statements at the same time by the Minister for Urban Development of imminent action to redeem the sorry state of Fort St Elmo, gave rise to hope that, at last, these particular nettles were about to be grasped. The hope was illusory, mere political rhetoric, as so much else on the environment.

As also was the talk at the same time of the "renaissance of Valletta", which confused - and still persists in confusing - the arrival of a few smart foreigners to buy and convert a few houses in Valletta and the recent welcome holding of successful Notte Bianca and the Malta Arts Festival with a regeneration of Valletta. This is truly to mistake the twilight for the dawn.

The determination to arrive at decisions on all major issues affecting Valletta is now vital. The capacity for decision is an absolute must in politics. We look to our politicians to have the courage to take decisions. But we have a genius for inaction. As the Opera House saga testifies, doing nothing is almost invariably wrong. This is the leadership pioneered by Pontius Pilate, which successive governments appear to have made their own in respect of Valletta.

Valletta is unique. That uniqueness should be celebrated and conserved. When we build there and make improvements let us think - like the Sovereign Military Order - that we build forever. We cannot afford egoistical mistakes. When the overdue decisions about how to deal with major projects are taken, let them be guided by the need that it should be in harmony with the rest of the buildings in the city. Balanced. Taking account of the scale of the site and the small size of Valletta. While Paris, London and Berlin can absorb daring, modern architectural challenges to the traditional structures around them, Valletta cannot.

Valletta presently constitutes a major part of our national environmental deficit. We want to see a city redeemed, no longer a city betrayed. A capital city whose uniqueness is respected - a fortified, baroque city truly worthy of World Heritage status. Though finance to underpin Valletta's restoration is certainly an issue, it is not the overriding issue. The overriding issues in Valletta are vision, courage, decision. In short, leadership.

To conclude, in the course of these three short articles I have examined Malta's environmental deficit. I have focused on what the deficit consists of and why it has arisen. I drew attention to the acts of institutionalised vandalism which have exacerbated - and continue to exacerbate - the problem. And, finally, I drew attention again to the pitiful state of Valletta, a capital city of questionable World Heritage status which has been betrayed by our politicians.

The environmental deficit will not be reduced until there is a conscious and coordinated effort by the government to tackle it. To do this successfully it requires a strategic plan which lays down clear targets and a clear time-frame for achieving them. Moreover, the government has to exercise the political will to ensure that the regulation of the environment is rigidly enforced and that it provides the necessary human and other resources to do so. The story of Malta's environmental deficit is a story of greed, political inertia and lawlessness.

I should add a postscript. I have written throughout about the "environmental deficit" as a means of drawing a parallel with the economic deficit which this government has almost overcome. But the truth is that, unlike the economic deficit, the environmental deficit can never be wholly reduced because in the significant majority of instances - over-development, the extension of the building zones and the other examples of institutionalised vandalism, the loss of natural landscape and marine coastline - once these are lost, they are lost forever. The balance sheet is so far in the red as to be virtually unrecoverable. This deficit can never be redeemed.

Mr Scicluna is a member of the National Commission for Sustainable Development. He is a council member of Europa Nostra and sits on the board of the International National Trusts Organisation. He is also vice president of Din l-Art Helwa.

Concluded