Mtarfa Isolation Hospital up for lease

Mtarfa's Isolation Hospital will be put up for lease for 45 years and 99 years by government, as part of the first four plots the state will be leasing out to the private sector.

The other plots are Zebbiegh's Strickland's Palace, at the limits of Mgarr, Mtarfa Palace, and the land at il-Busbesija, in Mgarr.

Parliamentary secretary for Lands, Michael Farrugia said the offers will be welcomed from next Monday up until Friday, 24^th October.

 "When this government came into power, we made it a priority to assess which government properties were not being used. In fact, the Isolation Hospital was a plot which the Labour Government of 1996 had already felt needed restoring. We feel that it is now time to restore such plots," Farrugia said.

The Isolation Hospital at Sir David Bruce Street, Mtarfa, was built by the British services in 1924 as part of the Mtarfa Military Hospital and barracks. A decade ago, vandals set on fire the rear wing of the hospital and some rooms, the veranda and the exterior fabric suffered considerable damage. The slabs in some of the smaller rooms collapsed.

MEPA scheduled the Isolation Hospital in Mtarfa as a Grade 2 national monument.

Farrugia added that the government was identifying other lands that could be leased to the private sector on condition that they are restored and that they respect environmental considerations.

 "Government will be, in the months to come, assessing which other government-owned sites could be restored and leased out.  Of course, we would need to make sure that environmental considerations are adhered to and that the historical characteristics of such buildings are not compromised," Farrugia said.

Farrugia said that, through the leasing out and restoration of such plots, the people would be "getting their land back" and stressed that it would also help to "create jobs".

"We are very confident that we will have interested parties," Farrugia said.

The expression of interest is open for both local and foreign parties.