No world heritage decision

With all due respect to Ray Bondin (Valletta's Protectors Are Us, August 20) nowhere in my letter did I make any allegations about him; in fact, I did not mention him once. Neither did I "shoot down" the WHC. On the contrary, my point was, and remains, that there was no World Heritage Committee decision, taken in the last WHC meeting in June, that threatens the WH status of Valletta.

Dr Bondin has, in fact, now confirmed that (i) the Piano proposals have nothing to do with the WHC decision, contrary to what was reported; (ii) that the State of Conservation Report was not submitted to WHC before the June meeting; and (iii) a full WHC investigation was started after reports submitted by locals. In addition, if, as Dr Bondin has pointed out, Valletta is in breach of the WHC regulations, because of a number of shortcomings, such as the lack of a buffer zone and the lack of a management plan, then Valletta has been in breach since 1980, when it was admitted into the List.

The matter, therefore, has nothing to do with the Tigné apartments shown in the photograph, as was implied in The Times.

I reiterate the point that I made in my original letter. The Times report was incorrect, and the photograph accompanying the report was misleading.