Proactive

During the past months, it was my privilege to participate in Labour's project to draft a regional development plan for the Grand Harbour zone. Right from the start, the exercise was designed to involve all the relevant stakeholders and to ensure that what they have to contribute to the region's development is fully taken into account.

We took the Grand Harbour zone to cover the eastern stretch of land and water covered by Grand Harbour proper (from Ricasoli point to Kalkara, Vittoriosa, Cospicua and Senglea, on to Marsa, Floriana and Valletta) and then to the west, that other contiguous stretch of land and water running from Valletta/Marsamxett, to Pietà, Msida, Ta' Xbiex, Gzira and Sliema up to Tigné Point.

The challenge: How could this whole area, which has over centuries been Malta's major natural asset, be economically and socially regenerated?

The harbours and creeks placed centrally in the Mediterranean provided very good shelter and served as a military and transshipment base since time immemorial, even prior to the arrival of the Phoenicians. Yet, in past decades, the maritime and related activities they had nurtured became stunted or extinct. The departure of the British military, the shift of merchandise imports to the Freeport, plus the decline in ship repair was accompanied by a shift of population away from the Cottonera and Valletta areas, latterly too away from Sliema and Gzira. The drop in population density was accompanied by a pronounced ageing of the remaining residents.

The insight on which Labour based its approach was the following: The Grand Harbour zone needs to be regarded as one whole region. It is counterproductive to imagine that it can be re-given life by piling on assorted project ideas for possible implementation over the years and assuming that they would jell by themselves into a dynamic and coherent system.

So we set out to understand how regional bottlenecks have built up. Week in week out, we discussed the issues that are of concern to them with local councils; representatives of civil society; business units operating in the area; infrastructural corporations; cultural and sports societies; environmental activists. I was present at most meetings and can vouch for the competence and commitment of the people and organisations we met.

A remarkable range of similar concerns emerged right across the zone, from Vittoriosa to Gzira and Sliema. For instance, concerns relating to traffic congestion; to the decay of old established neighbourhoods when long-standing commercial activity withered; to flooding in urban settlements nestling round creeks along the zone, as hinterlands were inexorably built up; to poverty, the loneliness of the elderly and social maladjustment; to the neglect of historic buildings and fortifications.

Clearly, a major response to all this must start from the mobilisation of new public and private investment. Still, this needs to be done on an integrated and planned basis. It has to be geared to projects that can develop momentum on their own steam, preferably on a self-financing basis after an initial period of running in.

We did not assume that we were about to invent or reinvent the wheel. It, therefore, made sense to review the experience of regional development initiatives worldwide... from the Tennessee Valley Authority down to the port regeneration projects of more recent years, like in Sydney, Liverpool, London and elsewhere. We learnt a lot from these success stories.

A central conclusion that emerged was the strategic need to improve mass transport within the region - in large part by pushing for the use of new ferry systems operating from one side to the other of the zone, rather than rely, as of now, on land-based vehicles. This requires a physical connection between the east and west sides, either via a tunnel under Valletta, or by carrying out a project that the Knights of St John had prospected, then abandoned, to construct a deep ditch around Valletta. Schemes are further being mooted to encourage new underground parking facilities and collective land transport linked to ferry stations placed around the zone.

In parallel with such an approach, the use of the water's edge will be rationalised. Industrial and semi-industrial uses should not feature pell-mell with service-oriented activities, like the unloading of merchandise alongside cruise liner terminals. Labour's plan sets out the areas from east to west, which would be earmarked for industrial and semi-industrial uses and those which would be developed for tourism, commercial and recreational purposes. As a result, guidelines can be laid - and have been laid in Labour's plan - for new commercial projects along the wharves and jetties of east and west.

The context has thus been created for proposals regarding new quays for cruise liners and new marinas for yachts and super yachts, stretching from Cottonera to Sliema; the sustained revival of the latter two areas; regeneration of Valletta city; plus community-based projects in all the localities in the region to ensure that development has real meaning in the lives of the residents concerned.

Is all this doable? Not if we repeat what was done in past years and just launch scale models and artists' impressions of "projects" that are forgotten as soon as launched. We have been viewing artists' impressions of the conversion of Dock Number One at Vittoriosa since 1995...

But, yes, all this is doable if a proactive approach is followed - if the government makes regional development of the Grand Harbour zone a major priority. That is what Labour plans to do, not least with the establishment of a one-stop authority to run the whole plan in all its aspects and ensure we hold to the timeframe for completion by 2020. At the Mediterranean Conference Centre this Saturday, my colleagues and I look forward to meeting all stakeholders from the Grand Harbour zone to discuss with them how a new Labour Administration will make things happen in their region.