The House of Representatives yesterday started debating a motion for the transfer of properties to a number of philanthropic, voluntary and sports organisations.
The motion provides for the emphyteutical grant of property at Luqa to the Foundation for Social Welfare Services; the lease of property at Marsa to the Eden Foundation; the sale of the former Naafi Bakery in Marsa to Maltacom and the lease of a tenement in Merchants` Street, Valletta to the YMCA.
Another part of the motion provides for a change in the contract conditions under which farmers at Qammiegh, Mellieha, had been given land on temporary emphyteusis.
In the last part of the motion, the government is transferring a number of properties on lease or temporary emphyteusis to the Malta Amateur Athletic Association, the bocci clubs of Kirkop, Santa Lucija, Qrendi, San Bastjan, Pieta` and Marsascala, Fgura Football Club, Zejtun Red Stars AFC, Mellieha Sports Club, Birzebbuga Shooters` Club, Regatta Club Cospicua, Ghaqda Sajjieda u Dilettanti Bugibba, Rabat Scout Group, Malta Playing Fields Association, Paola Wolves Sports Club, Marsa Sports and Country Club, Young Sailors Club, Assocjazzjoni Sport Floriana, Floriana Football Club, Young Stars Hockey Club, Floriana Basketball Club, Floriana Bocci Club, Drag Racing Association, Island Karting Club, Marsa Bocci Club, AS Libertas, St George`s Football Club, Centru Bocci Bugibba, Ghaqda Sajjieda Dilettanti Birzebbuga, Birkirkara Scout Group and the Malta Model Aircraft Flying Association.
Parliamentary Secretary Jesmond Mugliette, who moved the motion, said that in many cases the properties were already held by the organisations, often without title, and their situation was being regularised.
Mr Mugliette said this transfer of property would enable the organisations in question to develop their properties. This motion also established the mechanism under which the government itself could use the facilities held by the organisations involved. The contracts also enabled local councils to use those facilities.
He said this was the third time that properties were being transferred to sports organisations by the government, the process having been started with a memo to the Cabinet early in 1996.
The Labour government had followed up this process.
Mr Mugliette said the transfers were being made at low rents and emphyteusis and stamp duty was being waived. In the case of transfers to sports organisations, activities had to be sports-related.
He observed that 34 sports organisations would benefit from the motion, bringing up the total of sports organisations to have been given government property to some 100 over the past five years. This was a process that would continue in favour of societies that were giving a service to society.
Mr Mugliette said the motion provided for the transfer of property at Luqa, including St Mary Hospital, to the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, which was part of Sedqa and ran services for drug addicts.
A 19-metre warehouse was being transferred to the Eden Foundation.
The former Naafi Bakery at Marsa was being sold to Maltacom. This building was adjacent to Maltacom`s head office. The process for this transfer, Mr Mugliette said, had started under the Labour government. He said premises used by Maltacom at Vilhena Palace, in Mdina were being transferred to the government and included in the transfer price.
Turning to the transfers to the sports organisations, Mr Mugliette said 20 of the transfers were on emphyteusis and 14 on lease. The latter option was taken up in cases such as when expropriation procedures had not been totally completed or when the properties were on the coast, among other considerations.
The parliamentary secretary said properties were being handed over all over Malta and included a wide variety of sports disciplines. Among the property was that used by the Marsa Sports Club, over which the club had no title even though it had used the property for 30 years. The contract excluded facilities which were used by the Department of Sports. Mr Mugliette said he was against plans mentioned at the time of the Labour government for the building of timeshare apartments on the site. The emphyteusis, he said, fixed at Lm30,000, was considered fair. The Marsa Sports and Country Club had indicated it was comfortable with this sum, given the nature of the property.
The motion also provided for the transfer of the facilities on the Independence Arena to a grouping of Floriana sports organisations.
Other sites being transferred included the Silver Jubilee Ground.
Mr Mugliette said he was pleased to observe that sports organisations given property were investing in improvement of their facilities.
Among them was the Young Sailors Club which was planning to set up the first purpose-built sailing facility in St Paul`s Bay.
Other organisations which would receive property included the Rabat scouts, who were being given a plot because no premises were available.
Concluding, Mr Mugliette said such transfer of properties put the organisations in question on a sounder footing. This was yet another example of the government`s assistance to sports organisations and voluntary organisations.
Labour MP Joe Mizzi said the opposition agreed in principle on motions such as this although it felt the organisations should be bound to improve such properties.
He said the opposition had insisted this debate be held in the full House so that one could discuss the transfer of government properties in general.
He complained that in the past, important government properties had been transferred purely for speculation by the private sector. Such cases included Fort Chambray, where the government was failing to act even though the contract conditions had been repeatedly violated.
Speculation was also made on the property given to the Yellow Garage for the building of a car park and the areas, in a historically important zone, given as part of the Cottonera Project for the building of luxury apartments.
There were cases where government property was transferred for commercial use to the detriment of the environment and the people`s health. One such case was the site given for a filling station at Mellieha.
Another case was the proposed golf course at Rabat. The government was not saying whether or not it agreed with this project, leaving it up to the Environment and Planning Authority.
In keeping silent, the government was effectively saying it agreed with the project. The opposition was against it and he would be voting against it in the Environment and Planning Authority because the development of a golf course should not be detrimental to agricultural land, the environment and the people.
Mr Mizzi said the government was also going ahead with the building of a school at Karwija (near Kirkop) even though it would harm the environment.
The Labour MP said there were those who had taken over government land, developed it and got away with it. One such case was the Solemar Hotel, where the government was now selling to the hotel the land that had been taken over illegally.
The government, however, was using an iron fist with regard to boat house owners.
Mr Mizzi said that both parties agreed that a solution had to be found to the boat houses issue. He agreed that one could not take the law into one`s own hands and it was in the national interest that these things were regulated and the environment was not damaged.
Before the last election a Nationalist candidate had written that he did not think the government should take decisions that would hurt the owners as they had so far been tolerated by successive governments. He had said that measures should be taken to improve the areas, including the installation of services.
Yet, the government had recommended the demolition of the boathouses at Marfa and the building of beach rooms on agricultural land. Thanks to the opposition, the plans had been revised and agricultural land had been spared to a great extent. The opposition was not opposing the project so long as there was no development on agricultural land.
Nonetheless, the opposition felt that beach houses which did not harm the environment should not be demolished just for the sake of awarding a contract to some contractor. The areas should be embellished and other people too should be given the opportunity to enjoy them. Costs involving the demolition of the boathouses that were environmentally harmful as well as other works should be shared by all involved, with special consideration being made of the social needs of those in question, Mr Mizzi said.
Other speakers yesterday were Dr Frans Agius (MLP) and Notary Joe Cilia (MLP) whose remarks will be carried tomorrow. In his remarks Notary Cilia said the former Labour government had insisted on an improvement of the facilities at the Marsa club, but this was not included in the contract agreed between the club and the present government. This, he said, was a raw deal.