I read that the PN-led local council of St Julian’s has asked parliamentary secretary Deborah Schembri for the government to hand over Spinola Palace.

The mayor of St Julian’s said that if the government accepts this request the local council would be housed in the palace which would also be used as a day centre for the elderly.

I am sure that readers, especially residents of St Julian’s, would be very interested to learn that Spinola Palace became public property and was restored in the 1970s after being abandoned for decades when it belonged to the Archbishop’s Curia.

When the Labour Party took office in 1971 I happened to be president of the St Julian’s Labour Party club. I had written to Archbishop Michael Gonzi on behalf of my committee suggesting that the Church and the new Labour government should cooperate and use Spinola Palace and its garden for the benefit of the people of St Julian’s.

A delegation from the committee met Mgr Gonzi at the Archbisop’s Palace in Valletta. The Archbishop promised me that if the Curia was to do anything there he would contact us.

We never heard from Archbishop Gonzi. What I got to know much later was that tenders had already closed for building plots on the land surrounding Spinola Palace. I immediately went to the Archbishop’s Palace with my brother John and asked to see the site plan of the plots. Our request was refused as tenders had closed.

So together with members of the committee, I started a letter-writing campaign urging the government to take over Spinola Palace before building started. Finally, our request was heeded, and in the committee room of the St Julian’s Labour Party club, minister Patrick Holland drafted the legal notice to take possession of Spinola Palace under the ‘posession and use’ law.

The Labour committee wrote to the Prime Minister requesting that Spinola Palace be turned into a civic centre (at that time, local councils did not exist) and the palace gardens be turned into a playing field for children of St Julian’s. While the garden was turned into a playing field, the palace itself was restored but has never been used exclusively for the benefit of residents of St Julian’s. On November 17 of this year I wrote a long letter in l-Orizzont urging the government to finally, after all these years, start using Spinola Palace for the exclusive use of the people of St Julian’s and the surrounding areas, as was our original aim. I suggested a number of options, such as a health centre, day centre for the elderly, night shelter or to house the local council.

Hence I cannot but back wholeheartedly the request of the St Julian’s local council for Spinola Palace to be used as was originally requested by the St Julian’s Labour Party committee.