Who takes care of Floriana’s ‘fosos’? Councillor wants action on upkeep

Floriana councillor James Aaron Ellul has voiced his disappointment at the way his town’s historic granaries – the site for many a political, religious and recreational gathering – have been left untended with no government entity seemingly ready to take responsibility for their upkeep.

The Knights-era square, with its iconic backdrop of the St Publius parish church, is composed of multiple bell-shaped silos which were historically used to store grain. Now the massive site hosts some of the island’s largest national gatherings, political mass meetings, papal visits, as well as the Isle of MTV concert.

But Ellul is warning that areas of the square have started to subside, creating an uneven surface. The problem is the Floriana council has neither authority nor jurisdiction over this area. “We are only authorised to issue event permits which are organised in the square.”

Unattended damage to one of the granaries

Ellul has complained that no government entity seems to want to take up responsibility for the area. “The granaries have served as the lifeline for the country during the second world war, are now completely abandoned,” the Nationalist councillor told MaltaToday.

Ellul said that in a January meeting with National Heritage Minister Owen Bonnici, the council was told that it seems no government entity wants to absorb responsibility of the area.  “Problems have piled up for years, and the last restoration was carried out 60 years ago, bar some minor patchwork carried out by the council,” Ellul said. “The more problems there are, the more expensive it will become to restore the area.”

Ellul also said that an independent risk assessment is yet to be commissioned by a government entity over the historic area. “The only instances where a risk assessment has been carried out is when an event is organised, but they are never submitted to the council, and so we are not privy to the details.”

In one of the public events of 2020, two of the four historic lampposts which adorn the granaries were removed and never installed back in. “When contacted by the council, all entities involved said they were not in their possession. This is just one small example which highlights the need for a supervising authority,” Ellul said.

One of the missing lampposts

Ellul said the council would be open to the idea of taking responsibility for the granaries, should the appropriate funds be granted, but said it would not make sense without proper expertise at hand. “We do not have the resources or expertise to do so, while other entities like Heritage Malta are already set up for this kind of work. We would end up wasting a lot of time on ground-work which has already been carried out by other entities.”

An exercise carried out by MaltaToday in 2018 had revealed how government entities had passed the buck on responsibility for the upkeep of the granaries: Heritage Malta, the agency that runs Maltese museums and archaeological sites, does not steward the area; while the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage suggested that the newspaper contact the Lands Authority, which itself did not answer newspaper’s questions. And questions sent to the then Ministry for Justice and Culture, also remained unanswered.