The Environment and Resources Authority has regenerated Spencer Garden, located right behind its offices in Marsa.

Prime Minister Robert Abela inaugurated the garden on Wednesday and said the government was committed to seeing more such projects and more green areas being opened to the public.

Also present was Environment Minister Miriam Dalli, who is politically responsible for ERA.  

The regeneration project included the installation of new water systems, solar lighting and the planting of hundreds of bushes, plants and trees.

Abela underlined his view that Marsa has "great potential" which the government wanted to develop, having started the process with the closure of the old power station.   

A water feature at Spencer Garden.

The garden covers around 12,000 square metes of land at Spencer Hill, between Marsa and Blata l-Bajda. The area derives its name from the Spencer Monument, an obelisk in the Blata l-Bajda roundabout at the top of the hill.

The monument itself was erected in memory of Captain Sir Robert Cavendish Spencer, R.N., a cousin of the then Governor of Malta, Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby. Spencer died of natural causes on a Royal Navy warship in Grand Harbour in 1830. 

Spencer Garden has been given a new lease of life.

Plans for the regeneration of Spencer Garden were announced in 2021 by then environment minister Aaron Farrugia, with the end of 2022 targeted for completion. Plans for the project changed over the years.

A 2021 impression of how Spencer Garden was meant to look after rehabilitation.