Nowhere is safe from their greed

Malta has been sold to developers, lock, stock and barrel.

Nowhere is safe from their insatiable greed. Nothing is sacred, not even Comino.

We get one nasty surprise after another from the shameless Planning Authority cake-provider. Protected by the government, developers do as they please.

We have a parliament bursting at the seams with members and, yet, not one is ready to take the bull by the horns and do something about it.

Is there no politician, worthy of that name, be it from the government or from the opposition, who is ready to pluck up some courage and do something about it?

Carmel Zammit – Naxxar

Żebbuġ needs a park, not a hotel

A painting of Villa Buleben.

I left Malta for good last year. Still, I feel very attached to the place I left, Żebbuġ.

With great shock, I heard of the new building project – a three-storey boutique hotel – on the site of Villa Buleben.

The palazzo, its chapel and the old garden with some magnificent olive trees were in our direct neighbourhood. I passed them every day. They even inspired an artwork which I (as a painter) and Joe Friggieri (poet) showed in an exhibition called Trees in the Cathedral Museum of Mdina a couple of years ago.

One can bring back life to such a beautiful garden: open the gates, rather than destroy it.

May my painting be a source of inspiration for the developers and give them the right mindset to work with the trees rather than to cut them down. Żebbuġ does not need a hotel: rather it needs a park for the public like San Anton Gardens.

We are all aware that an energy crisis and economic disasters lie ahead of us. People need to have at least a beautiful home and a neighbourhood that carries them through these hard times.

Hotels? More pools for tourists? Malta has enough of them in more adequate towns. Żebbuġ needs a park for a start.

Christine Kunkler – Forchheim, Germany