With Malta having just gained independence the British forces had requested permission to keep a lido at Ricasoli.

The area in Kalkara had long been used by British servicemen and their families as a place of relaxation where they could swim on the outer edges of Kalkara Creek.

But with Malta now an independent State, a draft defence agreement with the British had stipulated that the concept of “naval waters” would disappear.

This meant that any such move to keep using the waters and shores at Ricasoli as a lido required approval by the Maltese government.

Cabinet minutes for the meeting held on September 29, 1964, showed that ministers were in favour of allowing the Ricasoli site to continue being used as a lido but agreed to impose certain conditions.

The area in Kalkara had long been used as a place of relaxation

The conditions had been listed in a Cabinet memorandum that spelt out the request and the feedback to the proposal, including the police commissioner’s “no objection”.

The naval authorities wanted to lay down spars in the sea to keep out pollution from the enclosed area where people could swim safely.

Ministers did not object but wanted the spars to be used only during the bathing season and insisted that public access to the area should in no way be hampered.

This was one of the first decisions taken by the Borg Olivier administration that was reminiscent of the complicated relationship that developed in subsequent years between a sovereign state and the British forces stationed on the island.

Although the Ricasoli lido was a minor issue, in the following years various government decisions were in part conditioned by the presence of British forces.

A far more serious consideration was a proposed expansion of the airport and the construction of a new air terminal, towards the end of the Borg Olivier period in 1971, when the project was conditioned by the British military’s needs.