Over the past year, we have had some interesting revelations about the Malta Tourism Authority’s strategy concerning the organisation of open air events. Firstly, a 300 per cent increase in the allocation of taxpayers’ money to sponsor such activities, which has inflated the budget from €2 million to €6 million in 2018.
Secondly, last year a legal notice was enacted which is meant to prevent entertainment outlets in the predominantly tourist areas of Paceville, Qawra and Buġibba from playing music which can be heard outside their premises after 11pm.
The latter is clearly an attempt to minimise the inconvenience to tourists staying in these areas by shifting the noise pollution to other areas inhabited mostly by second class citizens, namely Maltese residents.
We now know that the €6 million budget is being administered by a certain Lionel Gerada, a person of trust who is trusted to the extent that he has free rein in dispensing these funds without any shred of accountability.
As a person of trust, I am confident that his credentials for holding such a privileged position within the MTA must be his experience and expertise in tourism management.
If so, maybe he can enlighten us how this injection of public funds into such events fits within the broader strategy of promoting Malta as a premium destination to attract the mythical six star tourists to our shores.
This will allay the concerns of sceptics among us who are of the opinion that many of these parties’ contribution to our tourism is to serve as a strategic link in the distribution chain of substance peddlers who descend on these events like flies on faeces.
The Maltese government is manifestly on the side of the noise polluters
Now we are in a better position to understand the sheer impunity of the organisers of some of these noisy manifestations towards the justified complaints of residents who have to suffer for nights on end the disturbance which these activities generate.
This also explains the adamant reluctance by the police to take action against operators who flagrantly disregard existing trade licensing legislation through the noise they generate, which can be heard within kilometres of where they are held.
It is known that the police receive hundreds of calls in the early hours of the morning exhorting them to do their duty. The standard reply is that the organisers have been issued with a permit from the MTA. Given the recent spate of scandals within the force, I shudder to think what else may be behind this inaction.
Maybe the MTA can elucidate whether even the tiniest fraction of these taxpayers’ funds has been allocated to investment in noise reduction technology, as is being done in many countries around the world.
Are experts like Lionel Gerada aware of such technologies, or that there are also EU projects that are actively taking measures to reduce the inconvenience of unwanted noise caused by open air events to neighbouring communities?
The MONICA project is one such example which is being implemented in major European cities such as Turin, Copenhagen and Hamburg, and this in places where all such events have to close by 11pm. The anomaly here is that while governments in these countries are taking tangible action to protect citizens’ rights and quality of life, the Maltese government is manifestly on the side of the noise polluters.
Even worse, it is actively taxing the victim to encourage the perpetrators to let off noise bombs that last until 4am – supposedly in the name of tourism.
It would be interesting to come across a cost benefit analysis of the social and economic return of this €6 million funding, compared to other activities that unfortunately rank lower down the hierarchy of MTA’s priorities, such as film festivals.
What has now come to light is that this disturbance is state sponsored, it is being funded from the taxes collected from its victims. Perhaps it is high time that, rather than people speaking to Lionel, Lionel talks back to us with some explanations.