Go!

Towards the end of my February 7, 2004 address to the Malta Golf Club membership, I had said: "I am certain that there is a strong case for the government to direct Mepa to extract its head, neck and shoulders from the proverbial sand, identify a suitable site and give the green light to golf course development".

I had then urged the MTA, the MHRA, FATTA, the Malta Golf Club, collectively and their members individually, "not least the Tourism Ministry to champion and lobby the government strongly for the achievement of the objective and insist that principle, economic necessity and good judgment should outweigh small-minded prejudice and not so hidden agendas and pique".

To conclude my route-map I had then said that it was up "to the government to give and display some tangible, visible sign of recognition that it considers golf an important tool and an excellent means to further diversify Malta's tourism product offer and increase visitor flow in winter and during the shoulder months".

Despite vitriolic and often misinformed ripostes from the anti-golf lobby, others with no axe to grind or prejudice to nurture wrote in to support the principle, a point completely lost on the various scribes who continue to churn out pieces that equate alternatives to the Marsa course with approval of projects, principally the Verdala course, recently binned by Mepa. The Times and The Malta Independent gave unqualified support, cartoonists had a field-day and even Roamer was moved and gave the concept his august seal.

I have no quarrel with Mepa, readily acknowledge that Malta is the better for it and that the authority has staved off projects that could have added further dimensions of planning obscenity to already existing landmarks in ugliness, bad taste and environmental degradation.

It has moreover strengthened the value of environmental awareness and better urban and rural planning. My disagreement is not with the principle that led to its establishment but about Mepa's modus operandi beset by undue procrastination and the ingrained prejudices of some of its officials.

In the last month that the Prime Minister has raised golf course development to a priority level, I could not have asked for a better or expected a stronger and clearer endorsement.

The MHRA has since issued a statement in favour. The Malta Tourism Authority has done likewise. A few days later Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech committed himself and his ministry to the successful pursuit of the principle that has been a ministry policy of long-standing.

To ensure that within the next two to three years Malta will be able to offer an alternative to the Marsa course, the government must relentlessly pursue the twin objectives of seeing another golf course in Malta and one in Gozo.

The ball is now firmly in Mepa's court. There is nobody better equipped to identify government land that with the least impact on the environment and without impinging on good agricultural land can best accommodate courses of international dimensions and topographical challenges.

Mepa knows the ropes and what its directorates will accept. There is neither place for monumental studies nor for a new survey of the islands. Or for officials who have expressed anti-golf prejudices. Surely there is someone at the authority who knows what land is potentially amenable to golf course development!

The industry will not die without additional golf courses but will be all the better with them. Now that promoters have withdrawn the Pembroke application, the PM should see that the army's objection to a project in that locality is withdrawn.

Nothing should waylay or obstruct the government's resolve that Mepa should deliver and soon. Moreover, once sites have been chosen one hopes that Mepa will not do a White Rocks and make developers change and shred plans after having a hand in a project's selection and approval.

A question that springs to mind is that if Malta and Gozo do not have sites with the potential for golf-course development, why did the Structure Plan team include golf among tourism policies to be driven by the government? Now that the PM has taken the lead and further shown decisiveness and his commitment to tourism, the operative word is "Go!"