The government halted the planned extension of the Addolorata cemetery and then described one man who complained about the delay as a pest.

The news emerges from an e-mail exchange between the Social Policy Ministry - which is responsible for the extension - and widower Frank Muscat, who decided to go public, frustrated by the episode concerning the allotment of his family grave.

Along with thousands of others, in September 2006, Mr Muscat had been promised a grave in the planned extension of the Addolorata cemetery onto an adjacent dumping site. Under the plan, announced by former Health Minister Louis Deguara, 2,782 graves were to be developed on the site; 2,500 of these would be sold to the people who had been on the waiting lists for the longest time. Some of them, like Mr Muscat's family, had been there for a decade.

Shortly after the public announcement, Mr Muscat was told officially that his family's grave would occupy one of the new spaces, but a year later he had still not heard anything.

In fact, when his wife succumbed to cancer in mid-2007, he had to go to the trouble of finding an alternative burial place. He had managed to find a space in the grave of a relative but has still been fighting to get the family grave he was promised.

In the months before the March 8 election, his family was again told the project would go ahead and was even asked to confirm in writing whether they were still interested in the grave. They did, but after the election there were no developments.

Fed up with waiting, he took the matter to the politicians. Upon receiving the umpteenth complaint from Mr Muscat, earlier this month private secretary Remigio Bartolo wrote to Social Policy Minister John Dalli complaining that Mr Muscat had been "pestering him" for the last 12 months in connection with his pending allocation.

His boss's response was prompt: "Be informed that we have decided to stop the planned extension to the Addolorata cemetery to be able to develop a plan that does justice to this architectural jewel," he wrote to Mr Muscat, who learnt about this change of plan for the first time in this exchange.

"No threats of going to the media will intimidate us into destroying this important part of our natural heritage," the minister said, referring to a threat Mr Muscat made should his queries again remain unanswered.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Mr Muscat said he never suggested that the cemetery should be compromised in any way, but simply that the multiple promises made to him and his family are kept.

"Frankly, I was dumbfounded by the minister's reply... I had been complaining with his secretary for so long because I was getting nowhere. All I'm asking is that I'm given what I was promised within a defined deadline... I never expected this arrogance."

When questioned about the tone of the exchange and whether he found it acceptable for his staff to ignore queries only to then complain that they were being pestered when the complainants insisted on a response, Mr Dalli said that he had nothing to add to what he had already told Mr Muscat.

"Threats by people to go to the media if they do not have their way are not quite ethical and I will not have any part of it," he said.

Mr Dalli was also asked when the decision to stop the extension of the cemetery extension was taken as well as the reasons for it - but no response was forthcoming.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com