Speculation is rife on the site’s redevelopment, with some observers telling TMID that the government may have plans to develop the site as the new Parliament building.

There have been a number of attempts to rebuild the site over the past 60 years, but they never materialised. Proposals presented a few years back sparked controversy on whether the site should serve commercial or cultural purposes.

Choosing to build the site as the new Parliament may poor cold water over the controversy altogether, sources said.

TMID tried to get comments from Urban Development Minister Jesmond Mugliett as he left Castille following a Cabinet meeting yesterday afternoon. He did not wish to give details, saying that he would rather wait for an official statement from the government.

He did say, however, that progress was being made and the only area earmarked for public-private partnership was an underlying car park, far short of previous proposals that contemplated a number of commercial outlets.

Given the investment that such a project would require, sources said, it would make it highly unlikely that the government is considering a new theatre for the site, especially in view of the fact that the money generated from the car park probably could not sustain the cost of developing the whole site and therefore the government would have to contribute substantially from public funds.

Housing Parliament at the opera house site would kill two birds with one stone, sources said, as the Palace would be relieved of the strain of functioning as an administrative building, while at the same time the expense of rebuilding the opera house site would be justifiable without having to commercialise the site.

The specific proposal regarding the redevelopment of the Opera House and Freedom Square was one of the items discussed during yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

Similar proposals, made some years ago included the bus terminus, and the St James Ditch. This time round, the government seems be looking at the whole redevelopment step by step, starting with the Opera House and Freedom Square and then branching out to the terminus and the ditch.