One hopes that this will not be a simple publicity exercise for the government ministry involved, nor a short term marketing drive for the music activity being held there, but rather the beginning of a new page in the not all too satisfactory maintenance history of this fort.

It is also good to note that a security guard service has been introduced at the gate leading into the complex. This should bring to a stop the movement of unauthorised persons in this place as was the norm till now.

A good part of the last decade was spent by FWA calling for action in this regard. This had little success, save for the periodic cleaning-drives carried out from time-to-time by the Valletta Rehabilitation Project.

FWA now calls for a suitable use to be found for the entire fort, not just its lower part. The management issue of Fort St Elmo should be tackled as a whole and not in parts as was incorrectly done at Fort St Angelo which now forestalls the imaginative use of that fort on feasible lines.

Tackling Fort St Elmo as a whole should in no way preclude the inclusion of diverse functions and uses to its different areas. The success behind the new re-development of this fort lies in the imagination and determination of whoever is to go for it.

Fort St Elmo is far too big to serve solely as a museum. Other uses, possibly more profitable ones, should be added in order to make the whole effort economically feasible.

Nevertheless, the government is to see that the historic nature and characteristics of this fort should not be harmed. No gross mistakes of the kind allowed to ruin Fort Chambray in Gozo are to be repeated.

Furthermore, great importance is to be given to the restoration of all parts of the fort, not simply those which will be used to generate income. Similarly, the government is to insist on the employment of ongoing maintenance of the property so as to ensure that its state is always pristine.

One can surely say that the blame for the poor state in which Fort St Elmo presently stands in lay squarely and collectively on our shoulders as a nation. But FWA is confident that with the right set of minds, the right degree of political will and perhaps the right private partners, the fortunes of Fort St Elmo can be turned once again.