Plans to upgrade the Karin Grech gardens in San Gwann, the permit for which had been granted approval by Mepa a month after the general election, have been shelved by the government, The Malta Independent online has learnt.
The Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure is in the meantime holding discussions with various entities, to evalute other needs, like other minor projects which the community may need in this locality, the ministry told this portal.
The application for the permit had been filed by the Nationalist administration. Work had not yet started on the €1.1 million project since the permit hadn’t yet been approved by the environment watchdog prior to the election.
The permit for the project, which included an extension of the garden and the building of a civic centre hosting the local council’s premises.
The embellishment project was meant to offer bigger recreational space than the current one while the bocci club on the site was to be moved to Ta’ Zwejt (the work there has been finalised).
Instead of the club, the PN government had planned to build a civic centre intended to serve residents, and expand the play area, which was also meant to host a fountain. The civic centre’s roof was to host a garden as well.
A monument in memory of Karin Grech, to which the open space is dedicated, was to be given a more prominent space in the garden.
Contacted by this portal, San Gwann mayor Etienne Bonello Du Puis said that the San Gwann community stood to benefit from such a project since children would have had more space to let off their steam while residents would have been served better by a civic centre situated at the heart of the town.
Another advantage would have been that the new offices of the council would have been more accessible. The present council premises are far too small to host the number of free services the council currently offers, he said.
“Every month, the council offers a new service to add to the other services it currently offers, such as blood pressure and sugar level monitoring, craft-related activities, computer courses, to mention a few,” he said.
“The council was very excited about the project since we could have offered our duties much more easily,” Mr Bonello du Puis said.
Mr Bonello du Puis claimed that when he met Minister Manuel Mallia to discuss the issue, Dr Mallia told him that the government wasn’t too keen on the project.
The mayor said that he has now requested an appointment with the Prime Minister to further discuss the issue.
“We would have thought that the project would have been welcomed by the government since it would host a low-rise building, apart from the rehabilitation of the gardens,” Mr Bonello du Puis said.
He said that the council has asked the government to be given the chance to run the new bocci club premises at Ta’ Zwejt – which have not been used as yet - so that the council may use it for other purposes.
Dominic Cassar, a PN councillor, echoed Mr Bonello du Puis’ words saying that the council is in dire need of space and the new offices would have served the purpose, expressing disappointment over the government’s intentions to scrap the plans.
“We are facing a situation, literally to the point of overflowing, due to the lack of space,” he said.
Mr Cassar said that if there was some light at the end of the tunnel that the project would in the end go through, the council’s hopes have diminished after he claimed that the life-size billboard featuring a computer-generated image of the project was removed by the government yesterday.
In its reply, the ministry confirmed that although this project was planned by previous Government, there were no funds allocated in this year’s Budget, as stated in reply to a parliamentary question earlier this month.
As already declared, though tenders have been issued, their issuance was done without reaching an agreeement with San Gwann Bocci Club, which occupies a substantial part of the area identified for the project, the ministry said.
It results that the Bocci club has the concession on the premises and administration of the facilities, which expires in October 2016. Though new facilites were built for the Bocci club, the club’s administration is not interested in leaving the present premises, the ministry said.