Blemish on new Valletta entrance

The announcement by the Economy Minister about the relocation of the Monti hawkers, who are to move their stalls from Merchants Street to Ordnance Street, Valletta, possibly also spilling over between the new Parliament building and the old opera house site, is a grave cause for dismay.

The admission that this was the result of a backstreet deal struck between the hawkers and the Labour Party prior to the general election does not make the move any more palatable.

The Government should think again about the wider implications of such a move. It should do so in the context of a number of factors: the seven-decade wait for the radical and exciting improvements to the entrance to this World Heritage Site; the ambitious plans for Valletta Capital City of Culture 2018; the highprofile events in store for Malta in 2017 (when Malta takes over the presidency of the EU); and the touristic and cultural heritage implications of having what passes for a cheap bazaar at the very entrance to Malta’s capital city.

Of course, the Monti hawkers’ livelihoods should also be weighed in the scales. They complain that business is poor and blame their decline in income on their being in (lower) Merchants Street. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this contention.

It is just as valid to highlight two other factors at play: the reports from other Valletta shops that business has been slack, thanks mainly to the poor state of infrastructure in the capital and competition from other modern shopping centres and, more pertinently, the tatty nature of the wares that are sold by the Monti hawkers in their stalls.

Location has little to do with their plight. Moving the market from Merchants Street to Ordnance Street is unlikely to solve their livelihood concerns and could, instead, lead to serious unintended consequences for the historic capital city.

Overridingly, however, the move will have a deleterious effect on the aesthetics of the entrance to Valletta just at the moment when the unsightly monstrosities created in the 1960s and 1970s were about to be replaced by buildings that are architecturally exciting, some would even say even iconic, and designed by a leading world architect.

Having the Monti immediately adjacent to this area would be a blemish on the new Valletta entrance. Even taking the most generous view, the Monti is visually shabby and incompatible with the needs and setting of a historic World Heritage City. It gives the impression of a downmarket Arab souk without the compensating exotic charms of Arabia.

What is to be done?

Fort St Elmo is in the process of being restored. The use to which this historic fort will be put once works have been completed is still sketchy. It is envisaged that its development will include an expansion of the War Museum and a possible range of other mixed uses. But what is certain is that, once completed, Fort St Elmo should be a magnet for tourists.

Surely, this could offer the solution for the Monti hawkers to move there in purpose- built, standardised stalls. This would be a far better solution to their problems than trying to move them anywhere near the entrance to the city. Pending the completion of Fort St Elmo, therefore, the least damaging option would be to leave the hawkers where they are. In the interests of Malta’s rich cultural heritage, its international image and reputation as a World Heritage City, the Government must think again before proceeding with this ill-judged initiative