Government entities unaware Strait Street locations ‘booked’ by AG since 2000

Newspaper Illum reports how an application before MEPA by the Attorney General's office to convert Strait Street two locations (Casa Corogna and Casa Viani) into office space came as a nasty shock to Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit (FTZ) as the project’s overseer, as well as all the government entities involved.

Since 2008, FTZ had been working to reawaken the street and last year presented two applications to MEPA, to convert two buildings for cultural use. The Finance Ministry, Resources and Rural Affairs Ministry, Lands Secretariat, Government Property Division, Malta Tourism Authority, and Malta Enterprise are all stakeholders in the project.

But it transpired that the Attorney General had originally applied to demolish the interior of these buildings in 2000, and also presented a second application in 2010 (PA/05050/00) which appeared in the Government Gazette in 8 January earlier this year. In reaction, FTZ, along with NGOs Flimkien għall-Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) and Fondazzjoni Strada Stretta, all separately lodged objections to the AG’s proposed development.

Of the locations earmarked for conversion, Casa Corogna, is historically and culturally speaking the most important building in the whole of Strait Street, given that it used to house the artists who used to perform in the Manoel Theatre in the times of Grand master Manoel de Vilhena.

Contacted by Illum, Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit head, Fr Peter Serracino Inglott, said that it is “incredible” how the government used to manage its own property. “Until recently, they didn’t know what was hired, or where were the squatters,” he said. “The Lands [department] is not functioning properly – they have neither the means nor the staff to survey property.”

FULL STORY inside Illum’s digital edition.