Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar said in a statement issued yesterday that it deplores in the strongest possible manner the damage done to the old Tal-Grazzja Chapel in Sliema by intensive building work taking place some feet from its walls.

This new case of over-development wantonly damaging our country’s heritage could have been avoided, as neighbours had been warning that the excessive vibrations created by the use of heavy equipment had caused damage in far newer and stronger buildings nearby.

It is becoming increasingly obvious, said the statement, that certain building practices being adopted by contractors are simply not suitable for built-up areas, let alone Urban Conservation Areas. However rather than upgrading regulations, monitoring and enforcement, Mepa has starved its Heritage Unit of staff, leading to a lack of scheduling, although the de-scheduling of protected buildings in order to demolish them has conveniently continued.

To make matters worse, new regulations have now been proposed to reduce the need of Environment Impact Assessments (EIAs). Had an EIA been commissioned on the chapel site, the trenching and excavation works might not have been allowed so close to the chapel, while core sampling to check on the stability of the ground might have avoided this damage.

While it appreciates Government’s recent restoration drive, FAA stresses that it is no use spending thousands of liri of taxpayers’ funds on laboriously restoring Malta’s architectural gems, only to have them impacted upon by poor planning, inadequate regulations and developers’ heavy-handed methods. This chapel, which had recently been restored, now has wide-open cracks of 3-5cm up both walls and across the dome, which is seriously threatened.

Unfortunately, this is not a unique case of state/private neglect. The siting of a fireworks factory near the ancient San Dimitri Chapel in Gharb is a prime example of wilful endangerment. In spite of repeated calls for their preservation, the Punic tombs at Ras il-Wardija, along with the Roman remains at Ras il-Pellegrin and Ras ir-Raheb, will soon disappear altogether due to a combination of neglect, erosion and damage from hunters and trappers.

The Villa tal-Isqof at Wied l-Isqof, on the outskirts of Rabat, is tumbling down, its unique architectural features soon to be lost forever. Late mediaeval chapels all over Malta and Gozo lie abandoned and the advanced rate of deterioration of possibly the oldest one, by the Xewkija Heliport, has been highlighted time and time again and yet no action has been taken.

The FAA points out that Sliema’s oldest landmark, the Tal-Grazzja Chapel, survived one of the very first bombings of the Second World War, only to be declared unsafe thanks to over-intensive development almost 70 years later. While fine words are regularly regurgitated at official functions, Malta, its people and its tourist industry continue to lose more heritage through this so-called “development” than through four long years of enemy action.