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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 JUNE 2017 26 Letters The Valletta & Floriana Rehabilitation Committee has been informed it will no longer be consulted by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on applications for development permits in Malta's capital city, despite the fact that such consultation is still required by law. This turn of events, which apparently bypasses one of the heritage watchdogs responsible for monitoring develop- ment in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, comes at a time when MEPA is inun- dated with applications for "alterations" and "extensions" to existing Valletta buildings… although environmentalists argue that these are really euphemisms for luxury penthouses, which are steadily altering the capital's elegant skyline and threatening its heritage status. In a letter sent to VFRC chairman Conrad Buhagiar on April 3, seen by MaltaToday this week, MEPA chairman Andrew Calleja wrote that a decision had been taken to effectively re-classify the VFRC, on the grounds that one of its members was already present on the board in another advisory capacity. "One of the agreements reached… was that a representative of the SCH (Superintendence of Cultural Heritage) and one from the IHM (Heritage Malta) should attend the Cultural Heritage Ad- visory Committee meetings on develop- ment applications being assessed by the committee," Mr Calleja wrote. "Dr Ray Bondin, a representative of the Valletta, Mdina and Cottonera Rehabilitation Committees, is already attending regu- larly the CHAC meetings and therefore the Rehabilitation Committees may be re-classed from a consultee to a notified body." Contacted by MaltaToday, Dr Bondin confirmed that consultations with VRFC no longer take place. "The consultations stopped abruptly in mid-April," Dr Bon- din said. "This is the first time since the establishment of MEPA that something like this has happened." Dr Bondin also made his personal views on the issue painstakingly clear: "To me, this is an enormous disap- pointment, after all the hard work and dedication the committee has given to preserving the capital." Another VRFC member, Miriam Cre- mona, also expressed disappointment that committee members were kept in the dark over this decision, which was only communicated to the committee in the past days. But while consultation effectively ended over two months ago, there has so far not been any corresponding change to the 1990 Structure Plan… Article 3.25 of which stipulates very clearly that consultation must take place regardless of decisions taken by MEPA directors at board level: "The Structure Plan sets the strategic context of the Valletta Local Plan, specifies the issues which must be analysed in detail, requires the careful consideration of the analyses, concepts, and recommendations of the Valletta Re- habilitation Committee and its consult- ants, and envisages the active participa- tion of the Committee in implementing approved Local Plan policies." MEPA PRO Sylvana Debono confirmed over the phone yesterday that the consul- tation process had indeed been revised, pointing out that the decision was taken upon recommendations by the Manage- ment Efficiency Unit. "The reason was that consultations needed to be rationalised," Debono said. "MEPA has always sought bona fide public consultation. With regards to the rationalising of the consultation with the VRP, it would be meaningless to send two copies of the same thing to a person who sits on both the CHAC and the VRP boards. Also, the 30-day time frame for consultation, if not deemed necessary, may be extended on request, as frequent- ly happens in all consultation." Debono also added that, while sym- pathising with public concern over environmental and heritage issues, prac- ticality also had to be borne in mind. "Sometimes, what passes for 'consulta- tion' is actually a case of 'do as I say'," she commented. "But at the end of the day, decisions have to be taken." Valletta committee demoted as 'washrooms' sprout all over roofscape News – 13 June, 2007 Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. Busuttil should remain firm Whom to believe? So Simon Busuttil is being urged to stay on as Nationalist Party leader, having this one time at least decided rightly and hon- ourably to resign the party leadership. He should ignore what his supporters are saying. In fact, he should not have taken on the challenge in 2013, when he took over a damaged party that was almost breathing its last, and was in hock and seriously in- debted to industrialists, and the prospect of facing a rival party that had humiliated the PN with a 36,000 vote majority. I wonder, did the people who had enriched themselves in the PN's almost uninterrupted 25 years of government help the PN in its financial straits, or did the party leave that to the financially straitened workers, those who could ill afford it, to help it? That, to me, is one of the reasons why the PN should publish the names of those who joined in the cedoli scheme. But perhaps that is one of the reasons it did not announce the names of the holders of the cedoli. Simon Busuttil should see for himself who is driving this call for him to stay on as leader. Perhaps the call is coming from those who may have held him on a string in the election campaign, and gave him those awful policies, and negative campaign strategy, or did not advise him against what he was doing. The fact is Dr Busuttil is no political animal. None such would have seen any merit in Salvu Mallia. Or come up with the gem of a criticism that promised to give the Gozo Hospital back to the people of Gozo – who would want back such a pigsty, as the PN had left it? Who could reject Labour's plans for the hospital and Barts, and the resulting earnings for Gozo, from foreign students and their families? Busuttil should have developed a different attack on those plans, not invented his claim that the people of Gozo were enraged that the hospital had been "given" to foreigners. Dr Busuttil was a lamb thrown into a lions' den. He has ended seriously mauled. Roger Mifsud, Rabat On 2 May, 2012, Anton Borg, a physi- cian from Gloucester, wrote to another newspaper that he possesses copies of the medical evidence submitted in support of the successful claims to miraculous cure in Lourdes. He had also stated that medical grounds for declaring a cure are extraordi- narily tough. In all the Virgin's apparitions, she always told the visionaries that prayer and fasting can halt conflicts and avert wars. Yes, we be- lieve whatever happened and was said even at Fatima. At this stage, it would be interest- ing to know the source of John Guillaumier's (MaltaToday, letters) revelation that Jesus disapproves of the repetition of prayers. The Church is extremely cautious in ac- cepting these apparitions, and only after careful and critical investigation has proved their genuineness, does she approve of them. Sometimes, they even occasion new feasts or devotions as, for instance, the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to St Margaret Mary, at Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous and at Fatima. The Church does not propose these visions as objects of our faith, revealed by God, but not to accept them would be unreasonable and irreverent because of the great case employed by the church in her investigation, also because of the special guidance of the Holy Ghost she enjoys in such matters. If repetition of prayers strikes such a jarring note to Mr. Guillaumier and Jesus (allegedly), it's easy to fancy the pot calling the kettle black. I expect Mr Guillaumier to drop his pen immediately and stop repeat- ing his arrogant tirades against the church and anything holy to a degree he unleashes with large dose of animosity and sarcasm. John Azzopardi Zabbar