The new beginning which is being promised by the Malta Labour Party seems to be backdated to 1996.
In its proposals for the regeneration and improvement of the harbours and their facilities, it has listed the Connections Project yet again.
The Connections Project includes the perforation of the rock beneath the fortifications from Marsamxett right across to the Grand Harbour, cutting through the several layers of the foundations of Valletta including water cisterns, church crypts, basements, tunnels, waste and fresh water channels and, more importantly, rock fissures which would severely endanger the rock beneath the fortifications. The main purpose for all this destruction is for boats to pass underneath Valletta from one harbour to the other, warehousing and a multi-storey car park beneath St George's Square.
The approach to reducing traffic and to facilitating and improving connections to Valletta from both sides of the peninsula would be to reorganise public transport and to ensure that the consortium operating the sea transport across both harbours invests in sea-worthy boats which will be strong enough to navigate round the tip of the peninsula for most of the year.
A multi-storey car park and warehousing proposed as part of the Connections Project beneath St George's Square will need extensive exit, entry points, circulation space and ventilation. The purpose for all this destruction remains unclear but one which could possibly lead to the creation of a monopoly in respect of all the storage and transportation of merchandise across the two harbours.
This project, discussed exhaustively at various meetings since 1996, was thankfully discarded and shelved as it was deemed not viable, one which would have limited use because of the sea currents as stated by a qualified marine engineer and one which could endanger the very foundations of Valletta given the many fissures in the rock beneath the fortifications.
Our capital city, a Unesco World Heritage Site, deserves sensitivity, style, respect and simple, not Catonian measures. Simple measures are the more sensitive and respectful and generally the more intelligent.