Now don't get me wrong. I love fish as much as the next man. I also like divers and the income they bring into Malta. In fact when I was working at the Malta Tourism Authority I strongly supported the diving section of my directorate. But I just can't understand why the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the Ministry of the Environment decided in their wisdom to spend Lm30,000, out of the Lm50,000 that Spinola Developments had to pay as a planning gain, to create an artificial barrier reef in Balluta, leaving only Lm20,000 for the renovation of Spinola Gardens.
When I was at the MTA, the whole Lm50,000 was earmarked for the renovation of the said gardens which, as most passers-by can see, has been left abandoned and looking decidedly untidy for many years.
The application to Mepa for the renovation work on these gardens has been pending for the last five years. What is the sort of work that needs so much study and time for approval?
The gardens are to be completely refurbished, landscaped, paved, surrounded by a wrought iron fence, protected and lit up at night, a safe children's playground installed and the surrounding roads re-surfaced with tarmac. Nothing too complicated about that; in fact according to the plans presented to Mepa by Spinola Developments, there was nothing complicated at all. This work would cost at least Lm50,000.
The Lm20,000 that will be left after the reef is installed and paid for will only enable the contractors to do a patch-up job. Have we seen that word before somewhere?
At this period of time with our poor tourism product on display, surely it is better to embellish something that the tourists can see rather than something that is hidden underwater, no matter how desirable that may be in the future.
This shows to me that there is a vast gap between the thinking of one ministry and another about how these planning gains should be utilised and also a complete lack of coordination.
The artificial reef will not immediately help tourism to the extent that a clean, landscaped, attractive, safe and protected Spinola Gardens in front of the Hilton 5-star hotel would.
Where is coordination and planning? Does anyone in authority really think of our visible tourism product?
Well, the fish are going to have a great time and the 5-star tourists are going to have to do with a much more inferior Spinola Gardens project.
I sometimes feel that not everybody sees the same things through their eyes. Maybe eyes on different people see different things. Or maybe my eyes see Malta as it should be and how it could be but, unfortunately, how it isn't.
Mr Salt is a former chairman of the MTA's product planning and development directorate.