Alex Borg Explains Why He Voted For Fort Chambray Hotel Concession Transfer
PN MP Alex Borg has defended his decision to vote in favour of transferring a concession intended to develop the historic Fort Chambray into a five-star hotel.
The concession had originally been granted to hotelier Michael Caruana in 2005 but the project hasn’t materialised 19 years down the line.
Borg said the delay was due to successive PN and PL administrations dragging their feet in terms of carrying out necessary maintenance works on the fort and the bastions, a prerequisite for Caruana to obtain a planning permit.
The original concession stipulated that the government was responsible for maintenance works, but as nothing had been done, the project could never move ahead and the fort continued falling into disrepair.
While Caruana is now allowed to sell the concession to other businesses, the deal has been updated to clarify that the future buyers will be responsible for maintenance.
“I had to depart from the starting point that the government wasn’t capable of restoring the fort and allowed all those years to pass without doing anything as it was obliged to do,” Borg said. “The government has lost heart, and its inability to do its duty has led us to a point where it would be better for the works to be done by those who have an interest in them taking place as soon as possible.”
While the fort will be developed into a hotel, the surrounding moat will be accessible to the public and eateries and cafeterias could even be built in the vicinity.
And although the value of the land has shot up since 2005, Borg dismissed concerns by arguing that the concession won’t start from scratch but stick with its original end date.
Asked by Lovin Malta why he thinks a hotel should be built at Fort Chambray in the first place, Borg said that it will attract “quality tourists”
“It will be a five-star hotel that will maintain Fort Chambray’s identity,” he said.
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