Update 3 | Former Café Premier premises to go to Valletta local council

The former Café Premier premises will be devolved to the Valletta local council, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat confirmed.

According to the Prime Minister, the building was one of a number of proposals submitted by the PN-led local council for their new premises.

The government's decision to transfer the premises to the local council was inadvertently made public when a working document was uploaded on the Finance Ministry's website on Monday evening.

“This is not a budgetary measure,” the finance ministry said in a statement, adding that the government would “confirm it” in the coming days. The ministry added that the decision was an administrative one.

The working document suggested that the government would be offering the Valletta local council the option to relocate to Pjazza Regina. This would give the council adequate premises where to operate from. The decision forms part of ongoing preparations ahead of Valletta 2018.

The working document, which also included sections not included in the final version of the budget speech, briefly enraged vintage car enthusiasts.

The vintage and classic car enthusiasts however breathed a sigh of relief when they learnt their cars would not be banned off the roads.

Two surprised – and enraged – federations, on Tuesday morning issued statements condemning the government’s apparent decision to ban the use of vintage and classic vehicles on public roads, except on weekends and public holidays.

It however soon transpired that the vintage vehicle measure had been scrapped and never made it to the final version of the Budget 2016.

“A number of provisional copies had been printed as well but it was withdrawn shortly afterwards,” the Ministry said in an apologetic statement. “The government had refused this particular measure and was not included in the budget speech.”

The same document also included a number of social measures “that still require technical work” and were not included in the budget speech.

The Malta Motorsport Federation (MMF) and the Federazzjoni Maltija Vetturi Antiki (FMVA) had been shocked to learn of the alleged measure, after they were given the impression that government had considered it without even consulting them.

"It is simply not true that classic vehicles are contributing in any way to Malta’s traffic problems,” the organisations had said.

FMVA had also threatened to not attend any meetings of the Transport Malta vintage vehicle classification committee until further notice.

The certification of classic vehicles is now so tightly controlled, that in one single month around 20 owners opted to de-classify their vehicles as classics and return them to mainstream use.