No Valletta open market stalls would be allowed close to the parliament building and the number would be reduced to fit on one side of Ordnance Street, Economy Minister Chris Cardona said.
In line with the decision to have fewer stalls, between 10 and 15 of the 72 hawkers are likely to be compensated by the government for surrendering their licence, Dr Cardona said in an interview with this newspaper.
He said the government had “definitely” dropped its original plan to have monti stalls between Renzo Piano’s new parliament building and the Royal Opera House ruins.
Acknowledging that aesthetically it did not make sense, Cardona said it was physically impossible to fit all hawkers on the other side of the road.
It had still to be decided how to reduce the number of hawkers selling their wares at the Valletta market, Dr Cardona continued.
A number of licence holders were no longer in business but, even when taking these into consideration, the remaining number was still too big to accomodate in Ordnance Street, on the left hand side of Rerpublic Street. Talks would be held with the hawkers still in business to see whether any of them would be willing to take up the offer should the government opt to pay compensation to those giving up their licence.
“I am informed that some of them are interested to sell their licence,” he said.
Dr Cardona said his target was to relocate the monti from its present location in Merchants Street to Ordnance Street by the end of the year, in time for the start of the Christmas shopping season.
He said the new stall design would be unveiled in the coming days, adding he was optimistic this time around they got it right.
The original design had to be scrapped as public opinion deemed it too tatty and clashing with the elegant new building at the city’s entrance.
Dr Cardona noted that the Valletta monti was a very particular case which had to be tackled in a very sensitive manner due to its location in a Unesco world heritage site.
“It is very interesting and, from an artistic perspective, makes a lot of sense,” he said when asked to describe the new design.
Last January, the government decided to go back to the drawing board after the original design – a mix of PVC, metal and wood, featuring eight-pointed crosses painted in red against a white background – was rejected.
Subsequently, the ministry issued a call for the redesign of the stalls and more than 50 submissions were made. These were evaluated by a committee presided by the president of the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers and including representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister, the culture and small businesses ministries and the Valletta local council.
The full interview with Dr Cardona will be published in The Sunday Times of Malta.
OPPOSITION REACTION
In an initial reaction, the shadow minister for justice, Jason Azzopardi said the opposition had been proved right.
"We are being proved right yet again. Populism gets you nowhere," he said on Facebook.