Cathedral museum: Questions and lessons

I refer to the continuing saga of St John's Co-Cathedral and to the statement made by all six members of the foundation who have declared that they see no reason why they should resign.

As a Maltese citizen who has the well-being of my country at heart I would ask each of the six foundation members the following question:

Were they aware of the technical reports, all of which were against this project? If they were not aware then they were not competent enough to be members of the foundation which is there to safeguard this gem.

If, on the other hand, they were conscious of these technical reports and they pushed the project as they have done, then they have acted irresponsibly and also hid the truth from the public. In both cases these six members of the foundation should not be trusted with the well-being of St John's Co-Cathedral.

It has also been said that it was a pity that the experts were not allowed to decide on the matter in the EIA. I am sorry to say that the EIA comes at the end of a long process. It would have been much more prudent to commission proper technical studies at the beginning of the process, i.e. a series of geological studies should have been carried out before the development of the idea. This would have shown the dangers that the structure of the cathedral would have been exposed to and this whole folly could have been avoided. However, none of the plans shown to the public related to the stability of the bedrock under the cathedral.

The foundation has shown a lack of professionalism which makes it unsuitable to guard over one of the top heritage sites we have on this island. They should do the honourable thing and leave.

These six gentlemen have also let down the official bodies that appointed them to the foundation, i.e. the government and the Church.

Perhaps some good will come out of this whole saga. Should we not have proper procedures drawn up on what is to be done and what professional studies need to be carried out before any project that involves our heritage is taken in hand? We cannot rely on well-meaning but non-professional people anymore. We also need to have tighter control on the spending of money which is used to pursue such pharoanic projects.