When asked if Malta, as a country, is doing enough to safeguard its World Heritage Sites from the adverse effects of development, Heritage Malta CEO Noel Zammit stated that, in his opinion, "it's never enough" and that "it's high time we revise the local plans".

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, the national heritage agency's CEO said that through the revision and updating of the local plans, it would be beneficial to "analyse the systems [and] how they work".

"Should an application, which is within a buffer zone, reach the Planning Authority so easily?" Zammit asked.

UNESCO defines a buffer zone as an area surrounding the site to give it an added layer of protection via "complementary legal and/or customary restrictions placed on its use and development". This also includes the property's immediate setting, important views, and other areas or attributes that are fundamental to support and protect it.

The Heritage Malta CEO said that his call to update the local plans was made in a general sense and was not charged by a single planning application, for example, the revoked block of 22 apartments and 20 garages that was proposed within the buffer zone of Ġgantija Temples, Gozo, less than 200 metres away from the ancient World Heritage Site. He added that while the Ġgantija issue was one such example, he's had months where, through his position, he objected to five different applications.

"We are very active objectors in development; not just within World Heritage Sites but also other developments adjacent to our museums and sites," Zammit said.

Zammit also remarked that, in his view, "there should be a difference between someone who wants to build a washroom near a World Heritage Site and someone who wants to demolish, excavate and build a whole block". He continued that through the present processes, systems and structures, "the two applications are treated more or less the same".

Zammit said that "a multi-faceted approach" must be taken. While describing that "it's time we recheck and re-evaluate our policies", the Heritage Malta chief criticised architects for putting forward such proposals to begin with.

"It's also probably time to say, listen, our architects should know better as well," Zammit said.

Last November, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that Malta's local plans are outdated, implying that it might be time for them to be updated.

On Wednesday, 18 December 2024, the Nationalist Party (PN) issued a press statement to voice its view that the incumbent Labour Government is pushing a "Permit Authority" instead of a Planning Authority that safeguards the national heritage and plan's the country's future based on a clear and transparent vision. The Opposition published these comments following the Courts' revocation of the original Villa Rosa permit.

The Heritage Malta CEO also believes that penalties related to development on cultural heritage sites and the vandalism of such sites/artifacts should be increased.

Zammit said that despite the fact that contractors for such developments receive fines of circa €50,000 or €100,000, there are instances where they opt to pay the fine and proceed with the development anyway "because they're going to get the money back from the development".

Heritage Malta is in charge of state-owned cultural heritage as well as the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The national agency manages over 90 sites that vary from fortifications, palaces, underwater sites, and many others, including World Heritage Sites. Its mission is to "protect, to conserve, to restore, to make accessible, promote our cultural heritage, and make memorable experiences".

Should we have stricter rules to protect our cultural heritage?

When questioned if there should be stricter rules in place to protect local historic cultural artifacts, Zammit responded that he is content with what's in place though he would appreciate having stricter rules related to having an inventory of privately-owned cultural heritage.

He elaborated that "there is so much cultural heritage that, probably, we don't even know what we have", and hence, Heritage Malta, the government or the State could look into ways how it could help private collectors to take care of and preserve their owned cultural heritage.

"The government has taken the first step to document the state-owned cultural heritage; however, we should have some policies, some rules as to private-owned cultural heritage and works of art, which doesn't only mean 'let's document what we have', but that would mean that we, Heritage Malta, or the government or the State can help private collectors to take care and preserve their cultural heritage. That's a step we should look into," he said.

"Everyone has a right to own a Mattia Preti, why not?" Zammit told this newsroom. "We should focus on having some policies on how to make sure that we document that cultural heritage to make sure that we protect it, or we assist with the protection."

Government has shown 'outstanding' commitment to cultural heritage, but more resources required

Zammit told this newsroom that "the commitment the government has shown in the past, at least five years, has been outstanding".

He said that Heritage Malta has been enjoying large budget increases; operational expenditure has been upped from €5m annually to €10m per year, while repairs and maintenance now have a budget of €3m annually, up from €500,000 around five years ago.

Zammit also referenced the circa €3m to €3.5m that goes into the upkeep of Malta's museums and sites every year to keep them in mint condition, €15m going towards the nationally funded Maritime Museum, and the staggering €40m investment by the Maltese Government supplemented by €18m in co-financing from the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund, dedicated towards the Grandmaster's Palace restoration project.

"I think, by far, it is the biggest investment Malta has done in cultural heritage within the same project," Zammit said on the Grandmaster's Palace's restoration.

As a future suggestion, Zammit pitched for investment to be made in education to promote cultural heritage among school children.

"We have to get kids engaged with our identity from a young age so that, 10, 20 years down the line, they'll be appreciative of our cultural heritage," the cultural agency chief stated.

Despite all this, Zammit stated that his agency "definitely" needs more resources - especially human resources. He described that the agency hired salespeople, marketers, communication professionals and others, and that Heritage Malta finds it particularly difficult to engage with carpenters, metalsmiths and conservators.

Consolidating resources and strengthening museums is "the best path" forward in Heritage Malta's eyes, as explained by agency representatives. This was their response (which was stated by Culture Minister Owen Bonnici) when PN MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici asked if the agency would consider opening a museum dedicated to Mattia Preti and his work.

When queried on this, Zammit responded that "the Mattia Preti collection should be in a National Museum of Fine Arts", which it is, and that "it doesn't make sense to pull out the highlight of the museum, just to open another museum - it doesn't make sense at all".

The CEO described how Preti's collection is dispersed across chapels and churches in Malta and Gozo and that "it's not within our strategies" to remove all these artworks from these locations to concentrate them into one location; such is the strategic outlook for all artworks across the Maltese islands, Zammit said.

Heritage Malta approaching 2 million museum visitors by end 2024

Zammit told this newsroom that 2024 is set to be another record year for Heritage Malta and the number of visitors to attend its sites and museums. The agency CEO said that this is forecasted to break the standing record, which was set last year.

"We are going close to two million people visiting our museums," he said.

Zammit explained that "while tourists are our primary clients, locals are also loyal patrons of our sites, often drawn by events organised by the agency. An increase in tourism doesn't mean an increase in the admissions for Heritage Malta," though the agency is "very satisfied" with the tourist numbers being recorded. He detailed that higher tourist numbers mean a better chance of getting more admissions into heritage sites and museums. He added that this "is needed to generate the necessary funds to reinject in our conservation, protection, promotion of cultural heritage", especially since admission fees are the agency's main source of income.

The increase in Malta's tourism numbers has fortunately not led to more frequent desecrations of local heritage sites as observed in historic and cultural places in Italy. Prior to the recent vandalism of the main staircase inside the Grandmaster's Palace by a cleaner, Zammit said that the last vandalism issue occurred in Ġgantija in March 2023.

However, increased tourism has forced Heritage Malta to "raise the bar" for the security of the Maltese islands' sites.

Last year, Heritage Malta invested €4.4m into security around its sites, focusing on improvements, infrastructure and personnel.

Furthermore, Zammit said that Heritage Malta is not experiencing any particular issues with high volumes of people, and therefore, the agency does not presently need to think about introducing a visitor cap on more of its sites in order to better conserve them.

UNESCO 'quite satisfied' with Malta's progress on Valletta's World Heritage Site status

There's a lot of emphasis on Valletta when it's not strictly speaking within HM's remit. The CEO clarified this during the interview.

Zammit said that a task force, which is responsible for ensuring Valletta remains a UNESCO World Heritage City and is not within Heritage Malta's remit, is, to his understanding, in advanced stages of submitting a Management Plan for the city to the World Heritage Committee. The plan includes a "Views and Vistas Analysis" and a buffer zone for the city of Valletta, as long-requested by UNESCO. These requests were provided in the 2024 State of Conservation Report that was sent to the World Heritage Committee this November.

"From what I've gathered, UNESCO are now quite satisfied with the progress Malta made," he said.

In August 2023, following the publication of UNESCO's 2023 World Heritage Convention, several organisations, including Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA), expressed concern over the report's findings and Valletta's status as a World Heritage Site. FAA shared that certain projects in and around the capital may have an impact on Valletta's Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). The OUV is the standard by which UNESCO rates areas meriting the status of World Heritage Sites. The NGO had highlighted Malta's lack of respect for UNESCO guidelines related to Valletta's UNESCO World Heritage Site status. These concerns were publicised in spite of the Maltese government's statement a day prior that "Valletta's status as a UNESCO World Heritage site is not at risk".

The 2023 Convention, and previous reports over the years, identified five main factors affecting Valletta's status as a World Heritage Site: the lack of a defined buffer zone; that changes in building heights might alter the city's skyline; the major potential development of the City Gate and the Opera House; development and tourism pressures and the change of use of resident houses for commercial purposes.

Through the 2023 Convention, the World Heritage Committee had requested that Malta works on and submits three documents in relation to the cultural status of the City of Valletta: a "Views and Vistas analysis" to address the issue of height controls inside and outside the capital; the delineation of an adequate buffer zone and a final draft of a Valletta Management Plan, which should entail a series of action plans to aid how to better understand and address the capital city's conservation issues, as well as a tourism management plan.

The completion of a Valletta property management plan and the "Views and Vistas analysis" was recommended by UNESCO's 2017 Advisory mission, seven years ago, alongside the need that Malta "should continue to promote high quality new, sympathetic design within the property, rather than permitting façadism and pseudo-historicism".