Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/424604
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2014 16 News JAMES DEBONO THE Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee, which serves as an advi- sory panel for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, is objecting to a bronze bas relief depicting four knights in full armour which is being proposed at City Gate. The panel chaired by Magistrate Denis Montebello is objecting "to any addition of monuments to the site", that do not form part of the permit granted for the Piano project. On its part the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage has not ob- jected to the project but pointed out that it should not impact on "the architectural values of the City Gate project". Commissioned by the Grand Har- bour Regeneration Corporation and designed by John Grima, the plans suggest a 'traditional' sculpture that is seen to jar with the clean, mini- malist look of the newly built City Gate, depicting a quartet of Knights sculpted in bronze, in a pose that suggests they're locked and ready for battle. The project was originally slated to be installed near St Catherine of Italy Church overlooking Piazza De Vallette on 26 March, but on 12 August it was moved to Republic Street, in the same position where Camilleri's sculpture now stands. The project is currently pending approval. Heritage watchdog objects to Four Knights monument MATTHEW AGIUS THE heirs of a Malta Drydocks worker who contracted fatal lung cancer from exposure to asbestos were denied a com- pensation claim after a court cited lack of jurisdiction. Salvatore Formosa, a fitter at Malta Drydocks, died in 1978 after contract- ing malignant mesothelioma, a cancer caused exclusively by exposure to asbes- tos. His heirs claimed that the health au- thorities, the ministry responsible for the drydocks, the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations and the Com- missioner of Police had failed to provide adequate protection to workers handling the substance, in spite of the deadly link between asbestos exposure and cancer having long been known. They said Formosa's quality of life had been significantly and prematurely degraded and requested the court to declare that his right to life, his right to family life and his right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment had been violated. The defendants rebutted the claims be- cause Formosa's death predated Malta's 1987 adoption of the European Conven- tion of Human Rights, and because no proof existed that Formosa's cancer was a consequence of his exposure to asbes- tos. The government argued that none of the Formosa heirs were legally entitled to file the case, as none of them was directly exposed to asbestos. It also pointed out that the plaintiffs had not exhausted the ordinary remedies available to them before filing an extraor- dinary, constitutional action, rendering Shipyard asbestos claimants lose