After St George’s Square opposite the magnificent President’s Palace, St John’s Square, with the great 16th century Conventual Church of the Order of St John, St John’s Co-Cathedral, dominating it, is arguably the most striking square in Valletta.
Yet today we find it looking like a refugee ‘tent city’. Two catering establishments, San Giovanni Café and Luciano Restaurant, have unilaterally set up tented structures without a permit in the square. Both these establishments are in breach of the law for erecting these plastic tents, as well as several other breaches affecting the conditions laid down in their permits.
As in so many other parts of the island, these establishments are serial offenders of the permits they have been given to conduct their trade. The fact that they are doing so in one of the most beautiful parts of Malta, right in the heart of the capital city, simply exacerbates their misdemeanour.
The two establishments in St John’s Square have been served with enforcement notices for erecting their tented structures without a permit and are incurring daily fines for this and other infringements. The proprietor of Luciano Restaurant has filed an appeal against the enforcement action and the case is pending before the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal.
But, as in the case of Is-Suq tal-Belt whose illicit canopies were slapped with enforcement notices over three months ago, no enforcement action has been taken pending the appeal. The fear is that the ‘tent city’ eyesore will continue to offend and to drag down the appearance of St John’s Square for months to come. This cannot be right. As the Valletta residents have highlighted: “We expect the authorities to lead by example and that these abusive and highly intrusive structures in Valletta are dealt with.”
This is the crux of the issue. For it forms an intrinsic part of a wider problem that affects every aspect of the way planning and enforcement mechanisms appear to favour major developers and businesses over citizens’ rights and quality of life. An excellent example of this is the apparent impunity being demonstrated by the government itself, specifically Infrastructure Malta, and the hitherto complicit Planning Authority when it comes to, literally, bulldozing through major road projects without going through the necessary planning procedures.
This culture of disregard for the planning laws is indicative of the wider erosion of the country’s rule of law in so many areas of Maltese life, from financial services and gaming to traffic laws, to the dumping of inert waste and bird hunting, to littering and others.
Prime Minister Robert Abela has taken over with a promise to ensure that the rule of law is observed in every respect by all citizens at all times. Indeed, he has specifically highlighted “law enforcement” as part of the Minister of Home Affairs’ portfolio alongside national security. The environment and planning review tribunal falls under the newly energised Ministry for the Environment and Planning, which, perhaps more than most, has been in the spotlight over its casual approach to observing the letter of the law.
What is happening in St John’s Square – not more than 200 metres from Castille – poses a fundamental challenge to whether this new administration has the political will to ensure that the rule of law is observed by all, including the government’s own institutions.