Lino Bugeja's well researched article 'A monumental cemetery in Gozo' (The Sunday Times, November 25) has highlighted an ongoing aspect of our over-commercialised islands through short-sighted policies. Our national patrimony has suffered at the hands of both individual landowners and of the state.

Around 1832, what had been a unique Stone Circle at Xagħra, enclosing a hypogeum in a series of caves, was not acquired in time by the government of the day, due to a lack of funds. The owner set about destroying the surrounding circle of large boulders or megaliths in the hope of finding some treasure, and to deter visitors from encroaching on his property. The Stone Circle drawn by Padre Pelagio, OFM Cap., in 1750, painted by Jean Houel in 1777, and by Charles von Brochtorff in 1826 is no more, and has been lost forever. It is still, however, a major megalithic site for our islands.

A similar fate befell Gozo in 1946, when the fine Angevin cemetery of 1270 next to the Augustinian church and monastery in Rabat, and described by Mgr Gian Piet Agius de Soldanis in the 18th century, was destroyed and replaced by a playing field, now a car park. Wartime bombing and destruction of property must have been so traumatic for our population, that they became insensitive to further destruction of the national heritage by private owners and by the authorities.

In 1961, it was reported that 1,000-year-old boulders were about to be carted away by a contractor from Ġgantija temples at Xagħra. Moreover, the area north of these temples, known at Ta' l-Għejjun, towards Kola's Windmill, showed ample signs of having been a possibly extensive Temple Period settlement, with much ancient pottery being brought to light. In the next few years, this area was given over for housing development. The Għar ta' Għejżu megalithic temple, and what was left of the Xagħra Stone Circle and necropolis (Brochtorff's Circle), both lying in the vicinity, luckily escaped this fate, thanks to informed circles who raised the alarm.

In the 1980s Fort Chambray - built in 1756 - suffered a dire fate, when its military aspect, including the not unreasonable addition of a British 19th century military cemetery, was destroyed to make way for tourist accommodation, which jars with the fort's landscape.

As for Malta, it has had more than its fair share of destruction of our architectural and historical, even prehistoric heritage. The most glaring instance is that of the Royal Opera House, bombed in April 1942 and never restored.

Now it is the turn of Sliema and St Julian's to suffer untold damage, with main streets such as Tower Road between the Ferries and the Preluna Hotel suffering development. Some would call this area untidy. Shop fronts on the hill at Tower Road remain shabby. The road surface and pavements are disgraceful, and keep deteriorating with heavy cranes contributing to the damage.

It is only through sheer luck that we still have a Hypogeum at Ħal Saflieni in Paola to talk about. Locals had known about the series of caves at Ta' l-Għerien even before 1898, when the settlement at Paola was being extended, and private houses were being erected.

A Museums Department with authority to step in was not advised in time, and the Temple Period ground level megaliths were badly damaged. Here again, the hypogeum was placed out of context. Can one picture our main hypogeum in a rural landscape overlooking Grand Harbour at Marsa and the agricultural land around it? The Temple Period scenery from this temple and necropolis must have been idyllic.

The Neolithic temples at Tarxien tell a similar tale: from an agricultural area, to meeting large stones, to the discovery of the world's oldest colossal statue, to its almost total destruction. What we find today are but fragments of what our forebears could see. Fortunately the wonderful spirals and reliefs of animals, apart from the temples, have survived, thanks to the care of Lorenzo Despott, and the skill of Sir Temi Zammit.

Let us hope that development in future will be more informed, wiser and less destructive, indeed reconstructive. Salvaging what is worth saving is a proactive policy and a positive course.