The mayor of Valletta has suggested changes to a controversial law extending the hours that music can be played to 1am, after residents protested outside the council offices.

Alfred Zammit spoke out for the first time since the legal notice was published last week. 

Residents and owners of boutique hotels fear that by extending the hours that 'moderate' music could be played from 11pm to 1am, the UNESCO world heritage site would be turned into a party district like Paceville.

On Monday the Labour mayor said the council would ask for the legal notice to be amended so that the 1am limit would only apply during the weekend and that the word "moderate" be clarified.

He suggested it could be defined as "background music that can only be heard by patrons, who are seated at a table".

"What is moderate for you is not moderate for me," he told Times of Malta.

He said the council will continue refusing permits for DJs to play in Valletta and appealed for bars to abide by the law, saying some refused to do so this weekend.

“Some obeyed and followed the law this weekend and others couldn’t be bothered. Those who break the law will find the local council backing the residents’ rights," he said.

Residents defend rights

He was speaking after a small group of Valletta residents staged a protest outside the local council against the recent legal notice.

The group Residenti Beltin, said they would “not tolerate any more laws and legalised loopholes that go against our residential rights,” adding that “we deserve to be respected during the day and during the night”.

In an open letter to the local council, the government and opposition, MEPs, the ombudsman and the police, the group insisted public peace should be respected. 

“Leave residential areas as residential areas,” the letter said, calling for an end to “talk” by the mayor, his deputy and the councilors.

It demanded the publication of every name and entity involved in the recent law amendment and every form of communication held about it.

It insisted the amendments be revoked “immediately", saying they were made behind their backs. Every stakeholder had been consulted, except for the residents, it said, highlighting the mental health and physical impact particularly on ill residents, saying families were entitled to a full night’s rest.

“All those involved were quick to endorse and approve such laws, but then they take their time to protect and provide solidarity via community projects such as a nursing home for the elderly, a childcare centre and a multifunctional clinic for the Valletta community,” the residents said.

They called for a stop to light and noise pollution, “gentrification disguised as regeneration”.

Valletta is buzzing but not residents and hotel owners say the music is too loud, for too long. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Request for extension

Bar owners remained largely silent in the face of the retaliation to the controversial legal notice that allows establishments in Merchants, Old Bakery, Old Theatre, Republic, South, St Lucia and Strait streets.

But one owner of an Archbishop Street establishment refuted the notion of the capital city turning into a nightlife hub and maintained the comparison with Paceville was totally “false”.

Tom Piotrowski, who opened Babel Bistro one year ago, said it was thanks to the bars and restaurants that Valletta was what it was today – no longer an unsafe ghost town but a place worth visiting at night.

Its appeal now lay in the fact that tourists could also enjoy a drink and some music and Valletta needed this time extension.

He would be working to have his street – and all establishments – included in the list that allows for music until 1am, saying Archbishop Street was not all residential.

Babel has live music every night but Piotrowski said this would stop at 11pm anyway because it tended to be louder, and background music would be played after that time.