Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Ramblers Association, Moviment Graffitti, Friends of the Earth, and Nature Trust Malta welcome the Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by the University Faculty for Social Wellbeing on Astrid Vella, Coordinator of Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar.

Astrid has been a tireless heritage/environment activist for decades and has had several successes, the most recent being when FAA's court action led to the overturning of Transport Malta's illegal permit for the 'Capitanerie' building in Gżira's public garden, the NGOs said in a statement.

The fact that this award came from the Faculty for Social Wellbeing was most significant, confirming FAA's long-held conviction that cultural heritage is not just about the preservation of buildings and artefacts, but that heritage is a public resource and asset that benefits people's lives. This is especially of Malta where we live surrounded by heritage and was backed up by a recent Historic England report which for the first time provided empirical evidence that heritage makes a significant contribution to people's quality of life. We all value the role that green spaces play in ensuring wellbeing; this new ground-breaking research now shows that local town heritage plays a comparable and very valuable role. 

As Coordinator of FAA, Astrid has been very involved with the campaign to have Manoel Island returned to the public, along with Moviment Graffitti and 40 other NGOs. On receiving the award, she said:

"I urge our political leaders to act swiftly on their recently announced intention of looking beyond GDP as a measure of our country's success by tracking wellbeing, disposable income, and education to measure progress over the next 25 years," she said.

"As we are all painfully aware, Malta's reliance on GDP to measure progress does not assess how prosperity is shared, and fails to address inequality, mental and physical health. This was driven home most painfully when the Prime Minister declared that 'Taking Manoel Island back from developers would not be the best use of taxpayer money.'

"Legal arguments apart, given that Manoel Island is the last green area in Malta's most densely-populated zone in Malta, where residents suffer high rates of health problems related to air pollution and mental issues, one struggles to think of a better investment than returning Manoel Island to the public as a heritage park."

For Astrid Vella, being an essential part of the Manoel Island Post Għalina campaign follows after a long history of working alongside Gżira residents and many of the 40 other NGOs campaigning for Manoel Island to be turned into a public heritage park.

The NGOs strongly urge the public to support the petition calling for the return of Manoel Island to the public as a heritage park: https://www.manoelislandcampaign.com/