PN local councillor condemns Labour Party’s handling of Australia Hall
Vella Brincat also against MEPA’s decision to include Pembroke as a high-rise building area
30 November 2013, 12:00am
Tim Attard Montalto
Tim Attard Montalto
2 min read
Australia Hall has been left in a state of neglect for decades
The PN Local Councillor, Evelyn Vella Brincat has slammed the Labour Party's handling of Australia Hall in Pembroke.
Australia Hall had been passed on to the Labour Party by the Mintoff Government of the seventies when it took over the Freedom Press in Marsa to construct the Malta Shipbuilding.
It was left in a state of neglect for years whilst its unique wooden ceiling was destroyed in a fire, with the general opinion being that it was a an act of arson.
Yesterday, the Opposition submitted a request for a parliamentary investigation into the Attorney General and the Commissioner for Land's decision to drop a case against the Labour Party over a number of properties in Pembroke.
The AG and Commissioner for Land had informed court last month that the case against Labour leader Joseph Muscat, to reclaim ownership of properties following breach of contract, would be dropped.
The department had initially filed the case after claiming that the Labour Party left the properties, including Australia Hall, to deteriorate, breaching the contractual conditions stipulated when the land was transferred to the party in 1979.
PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said that the opposition was determined to uncover the Labour Party's "obscene" plan to take hold of land in Pembroke.
Vella Brincat said that on Tuesday November 12th of this year, she presented a motion during a meeting of the Pembroke Local Council in which she condemned government's cessation of its court case against the Labour Party regarding Australia Hall and surrounding land.
Vella Brincat said that her motion at the Pembroke Local Council was defeated by three votes to two, with all three Labour Councillors voting against, and Vella Brincat said that by voting against those Local Councilors indirectly approved the action taken by the Muscat administration.
She said that this was even more serious when seen in the light of the recent news that the installation of a Chinese Embassy in the same area was being proposed.
"The setting up of the Chinese Embassy in Pembroke has been hatching for nearly a decade with it often being the subject of informal discussion amongst Local Councillors and Chinese Embassy officials, and one which I have always opposed given the unnecessary risk it poses to Pembroke and its residents," she said.
"Such a project imposes a serious risk to the residents of Pembroke. Suffice it to say that there are a number of schools in front of and adjacent to the Australia Hall, not to mention private residences and other entities," she said.
Vella Brincat also critisised MEPA's recent decision to designate Pembroke as an area where high-rise building of ten floors and over would be allowed.
"This being a residential area, I will be insisting that the Local Council fervently opposes the inclusion of this area in this policy framework," she said, adding that the Local Council was there to protect the interests of Pembroke residents, and not those of the Labour Party.
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What risks does a Chinese Embassy poses? Get a life Evelyn.
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Pity Vella Brincat was not counsellor at the Victor Scerri Villa locality; or the other localities most sploit by the Nationalist-led MEPA in the past 15 years. Would her voice have counted for much back then? Or money/political power would have made a far sweeter sound?
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It seems that the Mintoff Government of the seventies took away a lot of properties which were not theirs to take. In 1974 Dom Mintoff and his Raiding Party also took over all or any empty private properties so they could rent to their constituents for pennies. Like when they took my father's property at B'Kara. They assigned the rent to be 19 Maltese Liri a year and it stayed that way until the year 2007 when the courts raised the rents to be 185 euros a year. Whoopeeeeee! Because of our archaic laws in Malta, my siblings and I, who inherited this property, still cannot get that property back because we have to wait until two generations of renters die or move away, which is not to be seen in the near future. That is something Mr Joe should be thinking about and find a way to return these properties back to their rightful owners. Shame on both governments to go along with Dom Mintoff's unjust confiscation of private properties from owners. [email protected]
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It seems that the Mintoff Government of the seventies took away a lot of properties which were not theirs to take. In 1974 Dom Mintoff and his Raiding Party also took over all or any empty private properties so they could rent to their constituents for pennies. Like when they took my father's property at 60 Triq in-Naxxar,B'Kara. They assigned the rent to be 19 Maltese Liri a year and it stayed that way until the year 2007 when the courts raised the rents to be 185 euros a year. Whoopeeeeee! Because of our archaic laws in Malta, my siblings and I, who inherited this property, still cannot get that property back because we have to wait until two generations of renters die or move away, which is not to be seen in the near future. That is something Mr Joe should be thinking about and find a way to return these properties back to their rightful owners. Shame on both governments to go along with Dom Mintoff's unjust confiscation of private properties from owners. [email protected]
