Alfred Sant yesterday referred to unfulfilled government promises about dock one in Cospicua, and said the Labour Party would be including the dock one development as an essential part of its regional development plan for the Grand Harbour. And, he told a news conference near the dock, Labour would keep its promises.
The Nationalist Party, he said, had, for the past 13 years, been promising one project after another in connection with the dock but absolutely nothing had been done. If now, on the eve of a general election, some agreement was announced about it, the MLP in government would go through that agreement with a fine toothed comb to ensure that whatever was agreed upon was in accord with the MLP’s plans for the Grand Harbour’s regional development.
The PN, the Labour leader said, in 1994 promised the removal of the dock, the development of the area for recreation and a yacht marina.
In 1996, on the eve of that year’s general election, Cottonera households received a leaflet saying that the PN would build a community centre, a bridge, a shopping arcade, apartments, a hotel, and an underground car park among other facilities, instead of dock one.
After the election of 1998 the PN in government announced the start of talks about the development of dock one. After the election in 2004, Minister Jesmond Mugliett said the government was thinking of turning the dock into an artisans’ centre. The Prime Minister launched a Lm12 million investment plan for the area, and in June 2005, Minister Mugliett said there were 20 investors from Europe, the US and Asia who had collected the information document about the dock’s development.
The dock one project was only one of many that Nationalist governments had promised at Cottonera, all of which had remained on paper. They were all meant as a blind for the people of Cottonera.
After the next election, Labour in government would give priority to the dock one area, and the necessary human and financial resources would be devoted to the project so that in partnership with the private sector, the regional development projects, including the dock one area, would be brought to fruition.
In a counter-statement, the Urban Development and Roads Ministry said a Labour government had not done anything in Cottonera between 1996 and 1998.
It was the Nationalist government that had worked hard to give a new lease of life to the area. The dock project was taking longer than expected to complete because the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had asked for an Environment Planning Statement, following which an outline permit had to be issued before the government presented a resolution in Parliament to transfer the land in question.