I recently visited the fantastic new building and Maltese treasure that is the National Aquarium on Qawra Point.

It is wonderful, with its great facilities and bars, infinity pool and other attractions. I can sum the facility up in a few words: “Overdue but fantastic”. The overdue we can forgive.

What did hit me, quite squarely between the eyes, was the view looking inland at Qawra, which everyone sees on entering: the most singularly awful eyesore of a retaining wall of blocks built around a monstrous hole! Why? When we have this jewel in St Paul’s Bay does it have to have a graffiti-strewn monstrosity such as this, immediately in front of its wonderful dome?

Surely the blocks would have been better used (if built for safety’s sake) to fill the hole in. Then with a little top soil an open space could have been planted, landscaped and benches and other amenities added to enhance the area.

We have a wondrous and modern facility that the whole of Malta should be proud of and instead it’s faced with this mess and liability.

Come on guys, together we can have a building with a 360 degree panorama instead of the 180 it currently enjoys!