Residents' association calls for preservation of remaining Sliema gardens

The scheduling of the nine gardens known as the Ġonna tal-Kmand, spread over the south of the island, has been welcomed by the Sliema Residents Association (SRA).

These gardens were commissioned by the then Governor of Malta, Sir Alexander Ball, in the early 1800s to increase greenery, not in an over-built environment, but to improve the environment of a barren and thinly populated island.

The SRA noted that Sliema, which dated to the late 1800s, once had an abundance of large private gardens, which had now been practically obliterated and replaced by claustrophobic apartments.

A bird’s eye view of Sliema and the surrounding localities revealed the severe shortage of green open with only three being spotted in an aerial view of the town - namely Villa Drago in Tower Road, Fort Cambridge in Tigne and Villa Bonici at the Strand.

All these sites were earmarked for development and not for scheduling and preservation.

The SRA urged the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) to take the example of past sensible town planning concepts. The traditional approach gave green lungs to urban and rural environments by creating the gardens of Valletta, Floriana, Buskett, San Anton and tal-Kmand. These examples were copied by private owners in later years.

Sliema, the association said, badly needed Mepa to put a brake on the prevailing overdevelopment which defied any definition of “sustainable development”.

Mitigation of the existing pressures on the environment in Sliema could also be achieved through planning policies aimed at preserving the remaining traditional private gardens.

Examples of such gardens at risk of being obliterated under the pressure of the development spree were in High Street, where there was a pending application for a conglomeration of back street gardens, and in Parisio Street.

Internal gardens not only provided relaxing wellbeing to owners but also benefitted the neighbourhood, providing privacy and fresh air.

The over-population due to the concentration of housing units in prime areas had compounded problems associated with insensitive town planning and unsustainable development including traffic.

At the same time, Sliema had thousands of empty housing units since difficulties of life in Sliema were driving out families and leaving behind isolated elderly.

The SRA called on Mepa to preserve and protect the remaining open spaces, townhouses, and gardens found within the locality so as to halt further increase in building density.

This would restrain the hardships so often voiced by residents of Sliema while new measures would be implemented to restore the proper balance between environmental and building development demands.

The SRA asked why Sliema and St Julians were the only areas where Mepa had not protected any gardens.

It asked that just as in the case of the Ġonna tal-Kmand, this environmental injustice be redressed by immediate action to prevent the destruction of Sliema’s remaining gardens.