The Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU, believes there should be a parliamentary secretary who would be responsible for Grand Harbour so that projects that needed to be implemented would have the institutional machinery needed to project them forward.

GRTU director general Vince Farrugia told Labour Party representatives at a consultation meeting on the MLP’s regional development plan that the GRTU was totally unaware of the company which was said to have been set up by the government to promote Grand Harbour projects. The GRTU had learned of it from what had been said in the media, Mr Farrugia said. To date, he added, there had been no attempt at consultation by this company with the GRTU about Grand Harbour.

The meeting heard of a need to link points in Grand Harbour by sea. The Connections project drawn up by the Labour government in 1996 was seen as still being valid. They also needed a much better communication system linking the cruise liner terminal with Valletta and they could no longer ignore the state of total neglect of places such as Fort St Elmo and the old opera house. There were few hotels in the capital; their presence would give life to Valletta in the evening.

As for the controlled vehicular access to Valletta, Mr Farrugia said the system had ended serving only certain interests, but commercial interests had been totally ignored. The original aim of the CVA had been lost and the system now was being run by the mayor of Valletta.

The MLP also met the Marsa local council which, according to an MLP statement, believes its town has the potential to develop a yacht marina but for this to be possible they had first to resolve the problems created by the power station. Marsa mayor Frans Debono told the Labour party at a consultation meeting on the MLP’s regional development plan for Grand Harbour that there were many problems in Marsa.

The worst were the power station, the abattoir and the neglect around the racecourse and Albertown. Over the past months the council has also been facing an additional financial burden brought about by the population increase resulting from the hundreds of migrants at the open centre.

The mayor said the council had been ignored very often by the central authorities but after the Labour Party started its consultation process on the regional development plan, the council has now received an invitation from the government to attend Saturday’s presentation about the Grand Harbour.

MLP leader Alfred Sant said the Grand Harbour had the potential of creating new opportunities even though over the past 40 years there had been a move away from it, with the departure of the British forces, the drop in shipyard activity, and the move of certain shipping activities to the freeport.

But the Grand Harbour could develop on the lines of Liverpool and Sydney with a full regeneration on an economic and social dimension.