The government’s claim on scheduled buildings in Pembroke, which were granted to the Labour Party on a perpetual lease in 1979 – including Australia Hall and the former Raffles disco – is still being pursued in court, despite the change in government.

The latest sitting was scheduled to take place last Friday, only to be deferred to 30 October by Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi.

The case concerns three sites that formed part of the British military installations in Pembroke. Perhaps the most prominent among them is the sizeable Australia Hall, which was built by the Australian Red Cross in 1915 to serve as a recreational centre for the benefit of servicemen stationed there.

But another important site – one well-remembered by many Maltese who came of age in the late 1980s, is the former Junior Ranks’ Club, which came to be known as the Raffles discotheque. The third site lies roughly between the two, and had been the Soldiers’ Cookhouse and Dining Room.

All three sites are scheduled: the Raffles building is a Grade 1 scheduled structure, while the other two are Grade 2 buildings.

But the former clubhouse and the Australia Hall have long been in a pitiful state: both, coincidentally, were gutted in a fire, which raised suspicions of an arson attack, although enough remains intact to make restoration possible.

The change of hands

The three buildings – and many others across the country – were vacated in 1979, when British troops withdrew from Malta in what is now celebrated as Freedom Day.

At the same time, the Labour government was seeking to extend the premises of the Malta Shipbuilding in Marsa.

The site earmarked for the extension – on Labour Road, by the busy traffic junction close to the Addolorata Cemetery – was occupied by the Freedom Press building: which, at the time, served as the Malta Labour Party headquarters.

Party and government reached an agreement on 22 August of that year by way of a contract signed by notary Alex Sceberras Trigona, who was the party’s international secretary and who subsequently became Foreign Minister.

In return for the Marsa property, the MLP obtained a perpetual lease on the three Pembroke properties. It was also granted a lease on what were to become its next headquarters: the historic Macina in Senglea.

Much of the British-era military complex the Pembroke buildings formed part of were transferred to Air Malta and converted into the Medisle holiday village. The conversion of the former barracks into a tourist area provided economic opportunities that were seized, although Australia Hall remained unused.

The Junior Ranks Club was rented out to the sons of former minister Joe Grima, and it became the Raffles Discotheque. The nearby cookhouse eventually became the Victoria Pub.

The Medisle village proved to be short-lived, and so did the area’s appeal as an entertainment area. Air Malta’s land was actually sold to Transport Malta for €3 million this year, in a deal that was quietly finalised shortly before the general election.

Tentative development plans fail to materialise

The discotheque itself, as explained above, was eventually gutted in a fire, while another use was found for the cookhouse. The building stood just next to St Michael’s School, whose owners, the St Michael’s Foundation, were planning to extend it.

The sale of the property was finalised in 1998, and the value of the transaction has been reported to be close to €600,000.

That same year, the disused Australia Hall caught fire. Its ceiling, which was made up of trusses and corrugated sheeting, was completely destroyed, and its stage area was extensively damaged. But its masonry has remained practically intact, ready for restoration that has yet to be carried out.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s records show that both Australia Hall and the Raffles site have been considered for development projects over the years. In both cases, it appears that the sites would have been redeveloped or restored by third parties, who would, presumably, purchase the sites in question from the party.

Three development applications concerning the Raffles site were filed in the 1990s, although records of the first, which was filed in 1991, could not be accessed through the Mepa website.

The second application, which was filed by Penza Group owner Carmelo Penza in 1994, was for the erection of “a business and pleasure centre with underlying car parking garage space,” suggesting that the building would have been demolished in the process.

The Pembroke structures had not yet been scheduled by then: this scheduling would arrive two years later. But the application was eventually withdrawn at the applicant’s request.

The third application, which was filed in 1996, actually led to the issuing of a development permit to applicant Wallace Fino two years later: it concerned the construction of a “child development centre.” But no such centre came to fruition.

No plans concerning Australia Hall made it to the planning authority until 2005, when Lawrence Fino, on behalf of Tamarac Limited, applied to restore it and convert it into a supermarket. But this application was withdrawn by the planning authority when it was not followed up.

PL taken to court

The properties fell off the radar until 2009, when the Lands Department took the Labour Party to task for failing to keep the properties in good condition.

In a judicial letter sent in October of that year, the Commissioner of Lands argued that Labour’s neglect was in violation of the contract between the government and the party, and warned that legal proceedings would follow if Labour failed to act within three months.

The deadline came and went, and on 9 February 2010, the Commissioner of Lands took the Labour Party to court, seeking to reclaim ownership of the three Pembroke properties on the grounds that Labour failed to respect the terms of the perpetual lease.

This appears to have prompted Labour to act: just three days later, it applied for a development permit to restore “Australia Hall and its environs,” with then-party president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi listed as the applicant and MP Charles Buhagiar listed as the project’s architect.

No similar application was made to restore the Raffles building, even though, unlike Australia Hall, it enjoys the highest level of protection from Mepa. The latter building had also been originally scheduled as a Grade 1 building – a level of protection which prohibits demolition under any circumstances – but it was downgraded to Grade 2 in 1997, for which permission to demolish “will not normally be given”.

In any case, Labour failed to follow through on its plans to restore the site.

Mepa’s request for further information on 15 November 2010 went unheeded, despite reminders sent to both Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi and Mr Buhagiar on 13 January and on 11 May the following year. On March 2012, in line with a provision in the Development Planning Act, Mepa’s Planning Directorate withdrew the application, as it had done with the supermarket plans a few years earlier.

The case continues

A month after the case was opened, the Labour Party filed a counterclaim: it demanded the return of its former headquarters if the perpetual lease on the Pembroke properties was revoked.

According to the 1979 contract, the PL was given the right to reclaim the Marsa property back if it lost any right to the Pembroke buildings – but only as long as it adhered to a number of conditions which are central to the ongoing legal battle.

Curiously, the Labour Party’s counterclaim on the site is in conflict with the Labour government’s plans for it. Just this month, the government issued a call for expressions of interest to convert the site into an international maritime hub.

The Labour Party, by all accounts, appears to have been buying time. It has produced a list of over 60 witnesses, a number which appears excessive, particularly since the court ultimately only has to determine whether the terms of the contract have been respected.

Furthermore, sources told this newspaper, proceedings were deferred on a couple of occasions simply because the party’s lawyers failed to inform its witnesses when they had to appear.

Such delaying tactics, inevitably, provoke suspicions that the party was hoping to prolong legal proceedings beyond the general election which were likely to return it to government, allowing for the case to be quietly dropped.

But so far, this has not happened: the case continues, although progress is as slow as ever.