There was once a most beautiful island in which I grew up, called Malta. Its capital city, Valletta, built in the 16th century by the Knights of Malta, was once described as “a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen”. Up until the late 1960s, Valletta was bursting with life, both during the day and in the evenings.
All the major importers had all their offices headquartered in the capital city and all government ministries were also located in Valletta.
Having myself lived in Valletta until I got married, I confirm it was indeed a very vibrant city. It was the main shopping centre for all of Malta, and all bus routes left and led to Valletta bringing hundreds of people from the many villages to either shop during the day or be entertained in the evening.
During the weekend evenings, it was practically impossible to walk fast up Kingsway (now Republic Street) to catch a bus at the terminal, as one had to negotiate one’s passage between the hundreds of people just walking up and down the street.
People flocked to the square opposite the Public Library, known then as Piazza Regina, to be entertained at the Premier Café by Oscar Lucas’s band playing every evening till 10pm, while hundreds of people sat at the tables drinking and eating pastizzi.
Every Saturday morning, one could also enjoy the precision of the band of the armed forces marching through Kingsway to perform the changing of the guards at Palace Square.
In the early 1970s, the just-elected Labour government struck the first blow to make Valletta look practically like a ghost town in the evenings. This process started with the regulation to have all shops close at 7pm instead of 8pm.
The next process was to move ministries out of Valletta to be housed in the former British army barracks in Floriana.
Many families also started to relocate to houses outside of Valletta, such that in the evenings, the city looked like a ghost town compared to its recent past.
This period lasted for more than 30 years, and the later Nationalist government did very little to revamp Valletta as the main cultural city.
The present Labour government decided to revamp Valletta and give it new life. Great idea. Wrong result. Today, Valletta is again bursting with people in the evenings, but for the wrong reason.
He thought MEPA stood for Money Exchanged, Permit Approved
While it was an excellent idea to license a lot of restaurants to open in the capital city, it was definitely not a good one to allow uncontrolled loud music, blasting out from every restaurant, making it virtually impossible to have a conversation while having dinner.
Valletta became another Paceville, completely losing the elegant and sophisticated charm it once had. Once a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen, the latter part of this description no longer holds true. The city’s elegance and nobility have disappeared.
While I have no problem with the opening of all those restaurants, as one can find similar scenes in Venice, the loud music emanating from the various outlets, competing with each other to make the most noise, has turned this beautiful city into a vulgar town, with music allowed up to 1 am.
This is total disregard for the city’s residents, who are now fewer. This was once a residential city, and the government and local council, which is elected by its citizens, have clearly shown that respect for citizens evaporates post-election.
The beauty of Malta was not only concentrated in Valletta itself but the whole island. The once beautiful bay-windowed two-storey houses, constructed all along the Sliema Front, have completely disappeared and have been replaced by a potpourri of blocks of flats up to eight floors high.
This was the initiative of the then Labour government of the 1970s, which allowed one property owner to demolish his beautiful house and build flats, and this had a domino effect within a few years. The whole of the Sliema Front was converted into a place of ugly cement blocks devoid of style.
The subsequent Nationalist government tried to control this unplanned construction by creating the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in the 1990s. Planning zones were created around Malta to make sure the island did not lose its character.
The intention was good but the abuse and greed of some developers, who were supposed to be controlled by MEPA, defeated these controls after Labour were re-elected. Within a few months, a jungle of cranes sprouted above Malta’s skyline.
A foreign friend of mine, who had been coming to Malta regularly over many years and was surprised to see so many cranes, asked me what the acronym MEPA stood for. When I told him, he corrected me and said he thought it stood for Money Exchanged, Permit Approved.
Shortly afterwards, the government changed the authority’s name to Planning Authority. In reality, this is a misnomer. There seems to be no planning going on whatsoever. The authority appears intent on fulfilling the wishes of many important developers. It would have probably been more appropriate to name it the Pleasing Authority.
Towers were being allowed in towns where the maximum height allowed was just four floors. A clear example of this uglification of Malta is the tower built in Testaferrata Street, Gżira, and in what was once the United Group headquarters. St Julian’s is another example. Townhouses were allowed to be brought down to erect high buildings.
It is sad that a few prominent developers now seem to run the country, as they are getting the permits to do whatever they want. They want to build towers everywhere. Villas are being built in ODZ areas.
I will end the first part of this memorial to once beautiful Malta with a simple question. Malta has very strict laws regarding money laundering. Should it not also be the responsibility of the Planning Authority, as a government entity, to identify the source of funds of certain developers?
Francis VassalloFrancis Vassallo is a former governor of the Central Bank of Malta.