Editorial

Here we go again. Hopefully this time it is for real and what Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has promised to deliver in terms of the regeneration of Valletta will materialise. One hopes that the entrance to the capital city that Renzo Piano is to build will attract more Maltese people and visitors to the city that was built by gentlemen for gentlemen but which has been allowed to deteriorate to the state it is in today.

The sceptics may be wondering, why insist on such a mammoth and expensive - figures like €60 million and €80 million have been mentioned - undertaking now that the economy is in turmoil?

They wonder, why dedicate time and energy to this project when there are other more pressing problems to be addressed? And, some of them at least, will also insist that this is no more than an attempt to alienate the people from other matters.

Among those welcoming the announcement will be individuals or groups that will expect a particular field, say art or entertainment, to be given more weight than others. Others will object to the idea of Parliament being moved to where the opera house ruins now lie as a memorial to inertia.

Some of the observations will be valid and others less so, and all, certainly, will be considered by the powers that be. But what really matters is that the idea of the regeneration of Valletta and, more so, the involvement of the great Renzo Piano are not being resisted.

The chaos that is daily fare just outside City Gate, the atrocious entrance to the majestic capital, the monumental eyesore right opposite the exquisite Palazzo Ferreria and, about a mile down the road, the breached walls of the invincible Fort St Elmo cry out for attention and for action. That is the real essence of the whole venture.

So Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi should be commended for deciding to contact Mr Piano and make his intentions public. There must now be determined action to get things moving as fast as possible and this is necessary also from an economic point of view, given the business activity that the project will certainly generate. The construction industry in particular, but not exclusively, is facing a bleak future.

It has not been explained how much work Mr Piano and his designers have put in so far. One has to wait and see whether he will come up with a completely new concept or modify/evolve the one he had proposed 20-odd years ago. It is imperative that the designs are completed and published in as short a time as possible. They are likely to spark a debate but what must not happen - and the Prime Minister, as the prime mover behind the project, must see that it doesn't - is that the more vociferous bring the venture to a grinding halt with trivialities that, more often than not, are of a sectoral nature rather than taking into account the wider picture: the common good. A lot has been said already about the matter. Now it is time to do something about it.

Once the designs are done, the necessary applications can be submitted and the Malta Environment and Planning and Authority should then lead by example and move fast. Finally, the execution of the work should then start in earnest with as little inconvenience as possible.

How about publicly setting some deadlines for all these stages, Dr Gonzi?