Heritage watchdog ‘spending 95% of time and resources on PA applications’ - PN

● Superintendence will only get 25 new employees over the next three years

The role of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage is being suffocated by the enormous increase in Planning Authority (PA) applications it is being given to review, according to the Nationalist Party (PN).

These arguments were made during a debate on the financial estimates of the heritage watchdog, which took place yesterday morning.

PN MP Therese Comodini Cachia argued that the blanket provision whereby the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage has to review all PA applications, even those not associated with cultural heritage, are leaving the entity with hardly any time to carry out other tasks or jobs.

PN MP Ryan Callus claimed that 95 per cent of superintendence ’s time is spent on PA applications, with approximately 9,000 applications per year and 750 applications per month that need to be reviewed.

Culture Minister Owen Bonnici announced that over the next three years, 25 new employees will be employed with the superintendence. However, the Opposition disputed this, arguing that 25 new employees were nowhere near the number of employees and resources the entity needs to function properly.

Bonnici informed Parliament that a new collective agreement for the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage was to be renewed, since the last one expired many years ago. He also said that conservators would be officially given warrants.

The Opposition, on the other hand, argued that the uncontrolled development on the island had resulted in the superintendence being unable to do its job. “This entity should have similar powers to those of the Environment and Resources Authority,” Comodini Cachia said, adding that it was easy to ignore the entity and not enough recognition was being given. “An example of this is how the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage was ignored by the PA on Villa Ignatius in St Julian’s,” she said.

Comodini Cachia called on the government to uphold a holistic plan on construction and not see it in a vacuum, adding: “Cultural heritage is not dead, but continuing. We need to enjoy the past but also offer our own culture for the future. Otherwise, what are we leaving future generations?”

PN MP Claudette Buttigieg argued further that the sector of cultural heritage should at least have a parliamentary secretary assigned to it, if not a minister.