The government seems to have had a sensible change of heart a couple of days after this newsroom exclusively released the winning monti stalls design and the one which was later proposed by the government.

This newspaper is informed that Ray Said and Rupert Pace, the two architects that created the design which won a competition organised by the Chamber of Architects, were called for an urgent meeting at the Ministry for the Economy.

The meeting was held late afternoon on Wednesday. The two met Joseph Gerada, Policy Coordinator and Ministry consultant Alexander Farrugia. The architects presented the project and the whole concept of the proposed stalls. More discussions are expected to take place to discuss the feasibility of the project. The meeting lasted for some 45 minutes and the government’s representatives said that they will need some time to check some things before taking a decision.

On Tuesday, The Malta Independent revealed that the government met with monti hawkers and proposed a new design which was completely different from the design which was chosen by an adjudicating panel of experts. Monti hawkers representatives who spoke to this newspaper recalled how they were called to a meeting with consultant Alex Farrugia, thinking they would be formally presented with the official design chosen following a competition, a design which they were already familiar with. However, they were taken by surprise when Mr Farrugia popped up a photo of a mechanized, four wheeled container on the screen during the presentation.

The design, a copy of which was exclusively acquired by this newspaper, shows a stall designed to look very similar to the old Maltese buses, standing on wheels.

Later that same day, the Ministry for the Economy issued a statement saying that the government is yet to decide on the winning design. The same statement also said that the design shown to monti hawkers was “one of many”. However, lawyer and hawkers representative Claire Bonello rebutted this statement and said that the ‘bus design’ was the only one shown during the presentation.

Monti hawkers who spoke to this newspaper have clearly shown their disapproval at the government’s new proposal, while reiterating that the winning design chosen by the adjudicating board was ‘acceptable and modern’.