The Irish love a party. None more so than on St Patrick’s Day, which they celebrate across the globe, including on this tiny island. Large contingents of Maltese, who also love a party, readily join in to celebrate the feast of this revered patron saint of Ireland.

For reasons which can only be explained in a uniquely Maltese context, what might have been, with a modicum of forward planning and greater imagination on the part of the authorities, a straight-forward St Patrick’s Day, this year became the subject of controversy.

Almost seven months ago, Massive Promotions, an events organiser, had approached the St Julian’s local council with a proposal to set up food and drinks stalls as well as live entertainment at Spinola Bay. The council had unanimously accepted the proposal.

Regrettably, in reaching its decision, the council either failed to consider the impact on bar and restaurant owners in the area or it decided this was not an issue of importance. Unsurprisingly perhaps – since large sums of money on food and drink were at stake – the bar owners in the area, who have in the past organised their own St Patrick’s Day events, were deeply irked by the council’s unilateral decision.

Subsequently, some big players in the St Julian’s entertainment scene asked the court to stop the event taking place. In its decision to grant the injunction, the court ruled, inter alia, that the council should have issued an expression of interest, rather than award the permit on a first-come-first-served basis.

Moreover, the court considered that interested parties had not been given the opportunity to come forward in a fair and transparent manner to bid for the event in line with public procurement regulations.

To make matters worse, it transpired that the Local Government Department had warned the St Julian’s local council that the permit they had issued to Massive Promotions was in breach of the law.

The upshot of the legal dispute was that the event was banned by the court. But this was not enough to halt the massive St Patrick’s Day celebrations from taking place under the informal aegis and with the encouragement of the bars, kiosks and outlets in the area.

To compound matters, the day after the festivities, the area where the party took place was strewn with tonnes of garbage, which, it appears, the local council – for reasons best known to itself – refused to clean up, as had been the practice in previous years. Nor, it seems, had the council informed the Cleaning Directorate it would not be cleaning up the mess and the Infrastructure Ministry reportedly had to divert 25 workers from other tasks to do the cleaning at Spinola Bay – a prime tourist area – at a cost to the taxpayer of €3,400.

There are a number of lessons for the St Julian’s local council – and others, too – from this sorry and disgraceful saga but perhaps two stand out.

The first is to plan early and ensure that all stakeholders, especially those who could be adversely commercially affected, are fully involved at every stage of the planning process.

Secondly, government procurement rules cannot be ignored, especially when there is a warning that one will be in breach of them as a result of one’s intended actions.

The council might well have thought it was doing the right thing, and having another revenue stream in the process, but the end result is there for all to see. Such mistakes cannot be repeated, for the sake of all.