I had told myself not to say anything as I watch what is happening to our capital city, but the news that the Triton Fountain is to be moved is just one step too far.

The once elegant and gracious city is fast becoming a modern shopping precinct filled with totally unsuitable shop façades, modern paving, loss of old stone edged pavements, massacre of trees, the latest of which are the ones which formed a lovely leafy avenue of shade leading into the Upper Barakka gardens to then expose the visitor to the breathtaking views of the Grand Harbour.

The patina of age is being stripped away from every public building, removing all sense of antiquity, while the present gang of modernists bequeath us with such hideous monstrosities as the dentist’s mirror lights in Palace Square, which look incredibly ugly in daytime and cut into the eyes at night with their harsh glare, spoiling the vista of the architecture looking from one side to the other.

Now we have lost the opportunity of having a professional performance centre on the Opera House site, which strangely is now to have Green Rooms and rehearsal spaces, so that it appears that the “small site” is big enough for a theatre without a roof, but not with one!?

Having travelled to no further away than Sicily I found that the baroque cities there are vibrant, steeped in age and full of excitement, probably in part because they are inhabited fully, a situation which can now not happen in Valletta because the commercial interests have out-priced the properties for ordinary dwellers. Countless baroque interiors have been lost to commercial gain, other premises are, to the government’s shame, lying empty and crumbling. Other countries keen on attracting tourism, which is the supposed aim of the tourism authority, don’t quibble about having umbrellas and tables serving refreshments to the public, they have planters in the main thoroughfares with large trees etc. as in Rome, which streets such as Merchants Street and Republic Street scream out for, also for much more public seating.

Now I know I will be shot down in flames by the yuppie modernists and leading architects but they move in a very sterile and exclusive world. In the end it is the “ordinary” people who matter, those who loved their city with its “shabby chic” look, romantic tree shade and sense of history.

Now we are faced with an entrance gap in the wall surrounded by what could pass as a poor man’s set for Aida, boring beyond words. The very least the city design vandals can do is to leave the Triton Fountain where it belongs. The silly suggestion that it would be “cleaner” in its new position is laughable – perhaps the dear lady who suggested this does not realise that the area will be bus-free in the future! Three cheers for Kennet Zammit Tabona, one of the few people with the courage to object to the modern Philistines who seem to be the luvvies of the government.

Now that I have got all that off my chest, I feel decidedly better – say what you may, I am assured that I am not alone.