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10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 MARCH 2026 ANALYSIS Manoel Island: How public pressure rewrote FROM a 1990s bipartisan concession to sustained and victorious civic activ- ism, Manoel Island's story traces Malta's shifting public sphere. IT tells the story of how citizen priorities on public open space and urban liveabili- ty reshaped political decisions. And final- ly, government responded by pressuring developers into an agreement, which seals the future of Manoel Island as a national park. MaltaToday looks back at the Manoel Island saga to discover how an impossible dream became a reality. 1990s–2000: Original concession and political consensus In the 1990s, PN-led governments prioritised growth by transferring pub- lic land to private developers, produc- ing mega projects like Portomaso and Chambray in Gozo. In 1992, the Maltese government is- sued a development brief for Manoel Is- land and Tigné Point, won by the MIDI consortium, led by entrepreneur Albert Mizzi, a former Dom Mintoff confidante and respected across the political spec- trum. Discussions continued through the Labour interlude between 1996 and 1998, with the outline permit approved under a re-elected PN administration. This permit foresaw 499 villas and apart- ments and 95,000sq.m of new buildings on Manoel Island, followed by a 99-year concession to MIDI issued in 2000. MIDI was tasked with mixed-use de- velopment, restoring Fort Manoel and the Lazzaretto, ensuring public shoreline access, and achieving "substantial com- pletion" by March 2023, with allowances for regulatory delays. At the time, public opinion largely accepted private-led re- generation, pitched as reviving a derelict, crime-ridden space. In 2025, former Prime Minister Alfred Sant reflected that the era's "consensus" on large concessions had ignored future demands for open space and environ- mental protection. 2000–2013: As Tigné takes off, doubts on Manoel Island are sown Tigné Point was largely developed as planned, establishing the commercially profitable portion, while Manoel Island remained mostly undeveloped aside from heritage works. As the Tigné sky- line evolved, along with Qui-Si-Sana and Sliema, public optimism began to wane. Despite early discontent, the North Harbour Local Plan incorporated the outline development permit for Manoel Island and Tigné, embedding it into the planning framework guiding future ap- plications. Delays on Tigné due to the rediscovery of the Garden Battery and Tigné tunnel works also slowed Manoel Island's development. These delays coin- cided with a shift in public mood after the 2006 local plan approvals, which sparked the first large-scale environmental pro- tests led by Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħ- jar. On the political front, the Nationalist Party faced greater competition from Alternattiva Demokratika and only man- aged to win the 2008 general election by a mere 1,600 votes. In 2010, an Office of the Prime Minister spokesperson con- firmed that during a meeting with MIDI, the idea of a less intense Manoel Island development was raised. In 2012, Albert Mizzi suggested that leaving Manoel Island undeveloped would require compensating MIDI. MI- DI later denied discussing divesting the project, affirming it remained on course. Subsequently, a permit was issued for 54 apartments, 6,320sq.m of retail space, a casino, and a hostel on the Lazzaretto site. 2013–2017: Building boom, shifting policies and rising public concern After the election of a Labour govern- ment in 2013, Malta experienced a construction boom trig- gered by policy chang- es and economic recovery from the post-2009 crunch. Planning policies were repeated- ly adjusted or "moved the goal- posts" to encour- age development, which became par- ticularly intense along the Gżira front. To this day Gżira remains a per- manent construction zone, with high-rise blocks, luxury apartments, and commercial projects choking the area. In this context, Manoel Island began to emerge as a symbolic 'central park' for Malta—a rare waterfront open space in the heart of highly urbanised districts. This fuelled the public desire for per- manent green space in densely built dis- tricts. Citizens began to view open space not as a luxury but as essential to quality of life, turning Manoel Island into a sym- bol in the struggle for open spaces. 2016: Direct action to secure the coastline In September 2016, Moviment Graf- fitti and then Gżira Mayor Conrad Borg Manché carried out a non-violent direct action to reopen fences blocking coastal access to the Manoel Island shoreline. The action saw police attempting to take action against protestors but were persuaded not to by the mayor after he forcefully argued that it was the developers, who were in breach of contrac- tual obligations. The direct action forced negotia- tions with MI- DI and secured public access to Manoel Island's fore- shore. Gżira res- idents were able to enjoy swimming and walking around the island once again. But while activists had little hope of stopping the development en- shrined in legally binding contracts, this was a critical moment for civic agency, demonstrating that organised activism can achieve tangible outcomes. Subsequently, MIDI reached out to critics, setting up a foundation involv- ing stakeholders, including Borg Man- ché and lawyer Claire Bonello, with the former mayor voting in favour of the new masterplan approved in 2019. But groups like Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħ- jar and the newly set-up Inħobbu l-Gżira persisted in opposing the project, and a 6,000-strong petition was presented to parliament but was never discussed. 2017-2019: First reduction in floorspace, increase in apartments In 2017, MIDI presented a revised mas- terplan for Manoel Island, amending the 1999 outline permit, which was approved in 2019. The new permit reduced the de- velopable floor space on Manoel Island by 8,000sq.m, but despite this reduction, the number of proposed units was in- creased to 610 apartments. This increase was achieved by converting what was originally intended as commercial or of- fice space in the 1999 plan into residen- tial units. The permit also envisaged land reclamation. The reduction was achieved by transferring the same amount of land area from the building footprint on Ma- noel Island to the Tigné peninsula, thus enabling the approval of a new high-rise tower near the restored Garden Battery. 2020–2023: Permit revocation, archaeological finds, and further reductions In a major setback for MIDI, the mas- ALL PHOTOS BY JAMES BIANCHI/MALTATODAY JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt