On my recent holiday in Malta I was intrigued to read that half a century ago the Times of Malta had reported on the opening of the UK Army married quarters at St Patrick’s.

In October/November 1978 I was one of the last UK MoD residents at St Patrick’s. The whole married quarter’s complex was handed over to the Malta Government, complete and in excellent working order. The houses and flats still had their furniture and fittings and could have been occupied immediately by Maltese families as either social (Government) housing or sold to private and individual owners.

In 1984 the whole complex was being marketed as a holiday resort – “The White Rocks Resort”. By 1992 the resort was no more and the former housing was turning into an unauthorised tip, the houses stripped of fixtures and fittings.

I and some former occupiers have often wondered why this was allowed to happen. The example of St Patrick’s is not alone. Other ex-UK MoD facilities were allowed to go to rack and ruin after they had been handed over to the Maltese in good working order and repair. The most obvious example is Fort St Angelo which promptly had a bridge added (and since pulled down as unsafe) and also a swimming pool!

One can only assume that the glories of Freedom Day gave the Maltese authorities the freedom to let things go to rack and ruin and deprive ordinary Maltese citizens of some good housing. 1963 housing, if properly and not expensively maintained, remains perfectly habitable.

I wish the ordinary citizens of Malta well. As ever they remain friendly and affable (except when some are behind the wheel of a car) but I often despair of their past and present political masters and their strange and perverse decisions.