Petition against Valletta projects

A petition has been launched against plans to extend the St John's Co-Cathedral museum and build a new Parliament on the site of the ruined Opera House in Valletta.

The initiative is by the environmental lobby group Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar. The group has invited the public to sign the petition at their website faa.org.mt, and will include it in a letter they will send to the Prime Minister calling on him to reconsider both projects.

FAA yesterday expressed satisfaction at the government's plans to regenerate Valletta and rebuild City Gate but was highly critical of the specific proposals on St John's and the Opera House.

The group's Astrid Vella criticised the museum foundation's incomplete description statement of their project. The documents available to the public at the Valletta council and planning authority were incomplete in their detail, she charged.

The blueprints of the cathedral site and a geological study were missing - the documents only showed the proposed plans making it difficult to make any comparisons. The excavations, which would be almost five storeys deep, would affect the shops around the cathedral, she added.

Neither do the proposals include emergency exits or where the dehumidifying equipment and generators would be stored.

The group is also concerned about the foundation's plans for the cathedral's courtyard: "The place is sacred for its historical heritage and yet the foundation's photomontage clearly shows that the graves will be removed to make space for ticketing booths and turnstiles."

Miriam Cremona from the FAA also called on the government to reconsider its plan to have a new Parliament at the opera house.

Instead the FAA is recommending the renovation of one of the dilapidated palazzos around Valletta as an alternative site for Parliament.

Prime Minster Lawrence Gonzi earlier this week hinted that the plan for the Opera House site may still be open to reconsideration, even as famous architect Renzo Piano, charged with redesigning the entrance to Valletta, was lauding the idea.