Sant cabinet considered private crematorium in Addolorata cemetery

The Alfred Sant administration was actively considering leasing 5,500 square metres of land at the Addolorata cemetery to the private sector to set up a crematorium.

This recommendation was made in a cabinet memo issued in April 1998 by Michael Farrugia, who was then serving as health minister.

Farrugia had proposed that the maintenance and upkeep of the crematorium was to be carried out by the private sector, while the government would have gained additional revenue by leasing out the land for 25 years. One of the advantages of this option, according to the memo, was to limit pressures by cemeteries on land use.

The memo also reveals that discussions with the Church authorities had already been carried out and no objections were made to the proposal.

But according to the memo, the new concept's viability depended entirely on a "change in mentality."

The newly-elected Nationalist government did not pursue this avenue further.

Replying to a parliamentary question in 2009, former health minister Dalli revealed that the government had set aside a zone at the Addolorata cemetery for the development of a crematorium, but that it would be the private sector to develop the crematorium.

In October 2012, health minister Joe Cassar confirmed that the government had no plans to build a public crematorium. But Cassar added that "cremation was not a closed subject" and that although the focus was on the construction of the graves, the introduction of cremation in Malta was still being considered.

On its part, the Church does not oppose cremation but recommends that the ashes are buried and not kept in urns or scattered.

Over the past decade, three applications for the building of crematoriums were presented to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA). In 2002, the firm Malta Crematorium Company Ltd filed an application to build a crematorium on land adjacent to the Addolorata cemetery. The application is still pending. One of the difficulties facing MEPA is the fact that the land in question was already earmarked for an extension of the latter cemetery.

In April 2012, the British Residents Association, which was initially involved in the proposal, called on MEPA to withdraw the application.

Another crematorium was proposed at the Safsafa area overlooking the Xemxija bypass. The application was turned down by MEPA to the relief of residents, who strongly objected to it. 

A proposal for a 1,000-grave cemetery on a site outside development boundaries along Mdina Road between Attard and Rabat now also includes plans for Malta's first crematorium. The proposal was made by Luqa Developments Ltd, a company whose directors include Pio Camilleri, formerly a close collaborator of the late Labour minister Lorry Sant.