Siggiewi's deputy mayor has called on government not to renew a lease for the Labour kazin, set to expire in June 2010 – when the Housing Authority had already filed an application for a daycare centre on the same site. Political posturing, or are PN activists jostling for the position vacated by Victor Scerri?
Matthew Vella
Siggiewi’s deputy mayor Karol Aquilina has refused to comment on his reported interest in the post for Nationalist Party president, after his brazen call this week to government not to renew a Labour Party lease on their club premises.
Aquilina, 30, broke the summer lull with a controversial motion, requesting the government not to renew the lease on the PL kazin, so that it can be used a daycare centre for the Siggiewi council.
Aquilina easily won approval for his motion, passed with the four votes of the PN councillors against the three Labour councillors.
But it is understood the councillor acted on his own in this political clash, not least due to the controversial timing of his motion. The PL club’s lease expires in June 2010, and an application for a daycare centre in Siggiewi – filed by the Housing Authority – is already pending planning approval.
Aquilina did not deny his interest when asked specifically whether his motion was tied to a bid for the PN presidency, vacated last Tuesday with the resignation of Victor Scerri for reasons related to an irregular development permit issued on Scerri’s land in Bahrija.
“I said I will not comment on this matter,” Aquilina replied again when asked whether he was interested in running for the post.
Aquilina insisted his motion had been researched and prepared long before Scerri had announced his resignation. The motion was tabled to the council on 21 July, the same evening that Scerri announced his resignation.
“I am in fact the councillor who presents the most motions and I take pride in researching all my motions. This was in fact researched and prepared several months ago,” Aquilina said.
Accused by Labour members of using confidential information on a government lease, Aquilina claims a Labour activist had passed on the information.
Aquilina is arguing that the Labour club-house, a government property leased to the Labour Party on 11 December, 1981 – the very eve of the 1981 election, to be precise – should be returned to the public as a civic centre.
His motion calls on the government not to renew the lease so that the Siggiewi council can use the premises as a daycare centre for the elderly. Aquilina has argued that the council’s current premises are too small and inaccessible for people with special needs and the elderly.
However, it seems Aquilina has ignored the pending application by the Housing Authority, as yet still awaiting MEPA approval.
It was this very application which was hailed by Siggiewi mayor Robert Musumeci, writing in the council magazine, as an accomplishment of the council to secure a new premises for a daycare centre.
Aquilina however argued he has presented the council with a new option by taking on the Labour Party club lease. “The pending application is the Housing Authority’s and not the council’s, and it seems some difficulties have cropped up in the planning process. In the past the council also discussed securing a bank loan for such a premises. My motion is the shortest way possible, because there’s a property (the PL club) that is to be made available shortly.”
The Labour Party club in St Nicholas Square, formerly known as Villa Siggiewi, used to belong to Mabel Strickland. It was bought by the government in the 1960s and used as a primary school for several years. In 1969 it became a civic centre used by a number of organisations.
In 1981 the Labour Party submitted an offer to lease part of the property. The property was leased to the party on December 11, 1981 – on the eve of the general election, for Lm200 a year. In 1983 other parts of the building became vacant and the government issued a call for those wishing to lease it. This was then also transferred to the Labour Party.
In 1987, a few months before the election, the government accepted a party request and extended the lease for 24 years that expire in June next year, Aquilina said.
Aquilina discounted claims that he was creating unnecessary political controversy among residents in Siggiewi.
“Not all. The property is a public property that should be returned to the Siggiewi people, because that was the reason why government purchased the property in the first place. This story is nothing new to the Siggiewi residents who know how this civic centre fell into the PL’s hands. If anything I doing justice for all the inhabitants, and not for partisan reasons,” Aquilina told MaltaToday.
He reiterated that the way Labour was leased the property was “scandalous”. “The building was leased by a Labour government at a time when the Labour party made no difference between party and state.”
Monday’s council meeting, which approved the motion by four votes to three, was attended by Labour candidate Edward Gatt and Labour MP Roderick Galdes.
They alleged Aquilina was furnished with details on the lease contract in breach of data protection regulations. Galdes said the contract was a private matter between government, as the lessee, and the PL. Gatt added he would inform the Data Protection Commissioner to look into the alleged breach or privacy.
Aquilina, on his part, claimed it was a Labour member who forwarded him the details.
In a statement yesterday, the PN expressed “disappointment” that Labour councillors voted against, saying they preferred to deny Siggiewi’s residents their day centre.
The PN also said Labour leader Joseph Muscat was placing partisan interests before the national interest, for refusing to relinquish Labour Party clubs that had been requisitioned by Labour governments from private owners.
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