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The aluminium construction that had graced our capital city for six months was set up after its owners Pillow Space Frame Ltd realised they were going to be left out of contributing to the 1 May EU accession celebrations, managing director Martin Pillow told MaltaToday.
“I was part of the Welcome Europe organisation and as May 1 approached I was always asking what part my company was going to play in the festivities, but never got an answer. Very close to the date it became fairly obvious that there was going to be no part for us so I decided to go it alone,” Pillow said.
“I first contacted the then ministry of Culture which was headed by Jesmond Mugliett and offered to create something to decorate Valletta. Once the idea was accepted I applied for a permit and was given one. My only condition was that I should be able to put a banner up to advertise my creation.”
The frame was admired by some and shocked others, among them Valletta mayor Paul Borg Olivier who had long tried to get rid of it. “I was not at all pleased with the frame being there and it did nothing to enhance the City,” Valletta Mayor Paul Borg Olivier told MaltaToday.
“I had been lobbying for some time to have it removed,” Borg Olivier said about the frame erected for the EU accession celebrations six months ago.
Although the frame was set up to coincide with the celebrations, MEPA issued a permit for six months and the frame was duly removed six months and a weekend after it was erected.
“I was not paid anything for putting the frame there and did not pay anything for it either,” Martin Pillow told this newspaper, “I put the frame there as a goodwill gesture, but was inundated with complaints and bad press. Only one foreigner congratulated me on it.”
MaltaToday asked MEPA why a permit was issued for six months but no reply was forthcoming at the time of going to press.
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