More than 80,000 square metres of land in 16 different sites will be transformed or regenerated into open, green spaces within the next two years in a €10 million investment coordinated by Project Green.

The sites are located all across Malta and Gozo. Some of them are existent, run-down gardens which will be given a facelift, others are derelict sites that are currently used as dumping sites, while others are pieces of land within development zones that will be transformed into open, public spaces.

All 16 gardens will be fully open to the public and managed by local councils, NGOs and residents.

The project was announced by Prime Minister Robert Abela, Environment Minister Miriam Dalli and Project Green CEO Steve Ellul on Monday.

Where are the sites?

• An abandoned site in a development zone in Santa Venera will be turned into a new public garden near Hospice Malta's palliative care centre;
• In Mtarfa a new community garden called the Fruit Forest project will replace a concrete site at the heart of a housing estate. Plans include 150 new trees and 400 shrubs; 
• A new educational 2,500 metre garden and nursery of 2,200 indigenous plants will be set up in Birkirkara managed by NGO Grow 10 trees;
• In Mosta, the Reggie Cilia garden, behind the Mosta Basilica, will be upgraded with refurbished sport and community facilities to help encourage alternative mobility. The new park will grow to almost 2,000 square metres and will be integrated with the streets of the Mosta square;
• A derelict area in Mellieħa's Triq il-Għasel will be transformed into a public garden;
• In Għaxaq, Woodland in Taż-Żebbuġ will be rehabilitated and opened as a public picnic area with pathways and other outdoor amenities. This land, currrently used as a dumping site, will serve as a 22,000 square metre family park with improved walking paths that will be accessible to people with disability. Cycle lanes will also be set up in the park and 1,100 new trees will be planted;
• A public garden in Għajnsielem will be upgraded with an education hub and a direct walking route to Mġarr Valley. It will be designed specifically to gather around 84,000 cubic metres of rain water;
• A new public park centred around various physical and sports activities for different age groups and mobility difficulties will be created at Għargħur;
• In Msida, the Pjazza Victor Denaro will be reconfigured to create a green area outside a new school with new spaces for outdoor educational activities. It will be extended to take over some current streets that will prioritise pedestrians;
• An inaccessible woodland next to Simar Nature Reserve in St Paul's Bay will be opened to the public with a sustainable picnic and walking area;
• In Marsaxlokk a woodland and family park will be created in a zone known as Tal-Kavalerizza to increase biodiversity and carbon sequestration of the area and give the community a new green recreational area;
• In Gżira a small green pocket next to a busy bus stop will be revived;
• An underutilised garden in Cospicua near De La Salle College will be regenerated into a 4,500 metre square educational green open space;
• In Paola's Ġnien Mediterran, the existing garden will be upgraded with increased afforestation, a dog park and a dedicated area for students with a direct link to the MCAST campus;
• A redundant vehicular path will be removed in Zurrieq to improve Pjazza Karmeltani with more trees and street furniture;
• In Pieta a playground will be revived with increased landscaped area for more trees and shrubs;

The Mosta the Reggie Cilia garden will be upgraded and integrated with the streets of the Mosta square. Photo: Jonathan Borg

And what’s going on in San Ġwann?

Ellul and Dalli explained that while the scheme concerns the smaller projects in different localities, the Agency will, in the next few weeks, submit the first planning applications for one of the larger projects that will see the main road of San Ġwann transformed into a 7,200 sqaure metre green space, with traffic diverted underground.

Consultation with residents is still ongoing and while the agency waits for planning permits to be approved it will kick start the procurement process, Ellul said, adding that public consultation led the agency to go back to the drawing board to alter some designs to make the project more comfortable for residents.

Project Green was set up earlier this year and is tasked by the government to implement the €700 million greening projects promised during last year’s electoral campaign.

The 16 sites will benefit from the €10 million Community Greening Grant that was launched in January, shortly after Project Green was set up as a new government agency to fulfil Labour’s electoral promise to provide an open space to every person in the country within 10 minutes walking distance.

“When the gardens are completed, 110,000 people in Malta will be within 10 minutes walking distance from an open space,” Project Green CEO Steve Ellul said.

“But this is not the end. More is yet to come.”

Dalli and Ellul told reporters that the scheme received 72 applications, much more than they had expected, despite initial complaints by NGOs that the application process was too demanding and the time windows were too restrictive.

Some 58 applications were submitted by local councils and the rest by NGOs and the projects that were most sustainable, innovative and in the centre of busy urban areas were given priority.

“But we are not discarding the other projects that were not chosen this time,” Minister Dalli explained.

“Most of the submitted projects have a lot of potential if modified to become more sustainable and innovative, and we will help councils and NGOs to improve them and they might benefit from future schemes.”

Dalli and Ellul explained the projects were designed following a lengthy consultation process with residents and children in different localities and the gardens will prioritise sports and education, giving people the space to relax, work out with their friends and schools the possibility to take the classroom out in the garden and have students study and learn surrounded by nature.

Project Green architect Beverly Costa said consultation with children revealed that some of them were worryingly out of touch with nature.

“Some children did not even know how trees and bushes grow,” she said.

“They did not have an understanding of how seeds are planted, curated and watered to become plants, and that is partly why we want these gardens to partly be educational spaces.”

Ellul also said one of the main priorities in the regeneration of existent gardens and playing fields was to remove as much concrete as possible and replace it with more trees and shrubs.

“This was a bottom up initiative, where we asked the people to come up with ideas and we are helping them implement them,” the Prime Minister said in a press conference.

“People want these projects and we pledge to continue investing in them. This is not just the vision of one government entity. This was our first electoral promise and this is the vision of the entire government.”

He said around 6,500 new trees will be planted in all 16 sites.

The scheme is funded by the government and EU funds but the local councils and NGOs will be responsible to carry out the works by 2025 and will be responsible to maintain the gardens for 10 years.