The inbox of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage seems to be as overloaded as the office of the superintendence itself as it was rejecting emails.

Partit Demokratiku said in a statement this state of affairs was mirrored in the fact that there was a great backlog at the Planning Authority on decisions regarding the scheduling of historical properties.

Buildings, it said, were often destroyed before the level of protection could be decided upon.

The Tigné Officers' Mess, for example, had been in the pipeline for such protection, which, if received, would prevent a planned high-rise from being built in its place.

“What does the Superintendence think of this situation,” it asked.

Between the 2014 Budget and 2018, the money allocated to the Superintendence for employees rose from €350,000 to €600,000 and 16 people were currently employed there.

“It is evident that this is not enough. The Planning Authority may suffer similar restrictions in its ability to schedule buildings on time,” it said.

PD called for urgent prioritisation and focus on bettering the state of the Superintendence, so that it would be able to keep up with the tremendous demands being placed upon it due to an overdevelopment frenzy.

It said it had presented a Private Member’s Bill in August 2017 calling on Parliament to draw up a national masterplan. If this had been implemented, such destruction of the natural and urban heritage, and the uglification of the island, would have lessened, if not stopped outright.

PD said that as a party in Opposition it stood as guardian and keeper of a healthy environment and would continue to work tirelessly to improve the state of affairs in Malta.