I refer to the continuing saga of St John’s Cathedral and to the statement made by all six members of the foundation who have all declared that they see no reason why they should resign.

As a Maltese Citizen who has the well-being of my country at heart I would ask each of the six foundation members the following question.

Were you aware of the technical reports, all of which were against this project? If you were not aware then you were not competent enough to be members of the foundation which is there to safeguard this gem.

If on the other hand, you were conscious of these technical reports and you pushed the project as you have done, then you have acted irresponsibly and also hid the truth from the public.

In both cases these six members of the foundation should not be trusted with the well-being of St John’s Cathedral.

It has also been said that it was a pity that the experts were not allowed to decide on the matter in the EIA. I am sorry to say that the EIA comes at the end of a long process. It would have been much more prudent if proper technical studies were commissioned at the beginning of the process, i.e. a series of geological studies should have been carried out before the development of the idea.

This would have shown the dangers that the structure of the cathedral would have been exposed to and this whole folly could have been avoided.

However, the foundation decided to develop the fluff rather than the substance. None of the plans shown to the public related to the stability of the bedrock under the cathedral.

The foundation has shown a lack of professionalism which makes it unsuited to guard over one of the premier heritage sites we have on this island. They should do the honourable thing and leave.

These six gentlemen have also let down the official bodies that appointed them to the foundation, i.e. the government and the Church.

I would also like to draw the attention to the function of the curator who has acted more like a marketing and project manager of the project rather than the person who should look after the cathedral.

Perhaps some good will come out of this whole saga. Should we not have proper procedures drawn up on what is to be done and what professional studies need to be carried out before any project that involves our heritage is taken in hand? We cannot rely on well meaning but non-professional people anymore. We also need to have tighter control on the spending of money which is used to pursue such pharaonic projects which are only created by certain people as an ego trip.

Ing. PAUL L. CARDONA

Madliena