I would like with urgency to bring to the attention of all the authorities concerned that according to a notice of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority fixed next to the Westin Dragonara Hotel entrance, an application has been filed for the construction of a car park on that site. That particular area should not even be touched except to be improved as a historical site as it was always said to contain on it a set of the famous cart-ruts.

In fact, during the last 10/12 years I personally drew the attention verbally and by phone of both the Museum Department and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, but nothing has been done or any action taken. This is a pity because historical places are our national heritage and should be well preserved and not ruined.

As a proof of what I said above, I have a personal experience: In the early 1960s, I visited my late friend Marquis Scicluna asking him to sell me that very area or part of it. Instead of an offer as usual, his prompt reply was: “On that area there are cart-ruts and no one can build on it.

If that land could be built, I would have joined it to the area of my Villa (the later Casino)”.

These were the Marquis’s very own words, a person who not only knew the place and owned it but was very up-to-date in all aspects of our history.

I am ready to witness in court the Marquis’s words quoted above because I am more than sure that he knew very well what he was saying. This area, as anyone can testify, has always been preserved.

Why is it now that someone, willingly or unwillingly, is attempting to ruin this historical gem?

Michael Galea

Marsalforn