No site yet for new Gozo courthouse despite plans being published two years ago

Justyne Caruana could not give an update of plans to build a new courthouse in Gozo, indicating that no site has been identified yet for the project when she was answering a parliamentary question.

The Gozo Minister told Parliament on Thursday that “it was premature to give details”, when asked for an update on the courthouse plans by Nationalist MP Chris Said.

Said asked the Gozo Minister at what stage the building of the courthouse had arrived, where it was located, and when it was expected to start functioning.

Caruana answered that her ministry was “exploring a more central site” for the new courthouse.

However, her reply jars with plans she herself unveiled two years ago for a new building on a site between Xewkija and Victoria.

In November 2017, Caruana had showed plans of the proposed new building on an area of 3,800sq.m. The proposed development would have included five storeys for the halls, and an underground car park.

The project had been costed at around €5.5 million.

Original plans for the courthouse to be built in Victoria, and for which planning permits had been obtained in 2016, were abandoned after the 2017 election as a result of geological problems encountered on the site.

Eventually, the ministry opted for the new site in the outskirts of Xewkija and Victoria.

But now, Caruana’s latest parliamentary reply seems to suggest that plans have gone back to the drawing board.

The Gozo courthouse is situated in a building inside the Cittadella, a space deemed unsuitable because of its physical limitations.