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Karl Schembri
The Floriana Council has decided to ban all those who do not reside in that locality from entering public gardens for the celebrations of Malta’s accession to the EU on the eve of 1 May.
Thanks to an unprecedented motion passed last Tuesday, the only two public gardens in Floriana that will not be taken up by WelcomEurope for its corporate sponsors will be open only to Floriana residents, who will be asked to produce ID cards at the gates.
Opposed by the mayor, the decision was taken after the council was asked by the WelcomEurope consortium to provide exclusive access for its sponsors to the four public gardens in Floriana and another two in Valletta overlooking Grand Harbour.
In an unprecedented move, the Floriana Local council decided to allow WelcomEurope the use of Herbert Ganado Gardens and King George the Fifth or Sir Luigi Preziosi gardens, while closing the Vilhena garden and the one which will not be taken up by the consortium to all those who are not Floriana residents. The consortium will be giving between Lm500 and Lm1,000 as a ‘donation’ to the council for the two gardens.
The motion was proposed by PN councillor Edward Torpiano, who justified his ‘separatist’ stand by saying that the Floriana gardens “would not cope with all the residents of Malta.” He also garnered the votes of the Deputy Mayor, Mary Dimech, and John Brincat – both MLP representatives – against the mayor (independent) and PN councillor Reuben Bonello.
“Residents from other localities should get their councils to defend their rights to access public gardens,” Mr Torpiano told MaltaToday. “In our case, we defended the Floriana residents’ right to access their public gardens without compromising WelcomEurope’s plans.”
The decision means that guests of residents would also be banned from entering the Floriana gardens.
“If we do it by the book, that’s what it means,” Mr Torpiano said. “There should be security people checking who’s entering the gardens although it will be difficult to ascertain children’s locality given that they don’t carry ID cards.”
Mayor Nigel Holland said he was embarrassed by his council’s decision.
“I’m ashamed of this decision, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” he said when contacted. “Frankly, I don’t understand it. There is absolutely no reason to do this.
“I’m known for taking a clear stand in favour of Floriana residents when it comes to parking and housing, even of discriminating positively in their favour, but this is something else altogether.
“It is actually against the people of Floriana who migrated to other localities over the years and who would have liked to come here for the celebrations with their friends and relatives.”
Mr Holland tried to change the decision by proposing a counter-motion last Tuesday, calling for unrestricted access to the public in all four gardens and dismissing the consortium’s request.
“I’m against giving privileged access to anyone, even against a donation from the consortium,” Mr Holland said. “Public gardens should remain open to the public and money doesn’t concern me. What I find so strange is that the consortium contacted us the day after we took the vote and asked us for two gardens instead of four with exactly the same details that were mentioned in the motion. So basically they got what they wanted.”
WelcomEurope has justified its call for banning the public from Valletta’s and Floriana’s public gardens on the grounds that it needs to make good for the shortfall between the Lm270,000 government is paying the consortium and the real cost of the light show.
Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech defended the agreement.
“It is a very practical way of financing such a high-level event,” he said.
karl@newsworksltd.com
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