In developing this Action Plan as consultants
specialising in spatial planning, regeneration and
heritage management we have sought to follow
principles of „best practice‟ measures which have
been established both on a national and
internationally level.
The project of the Action Plan in the context of
HERO has been an opportunity to adopt a new
approach to planning for conservation and planning
for the city. The complexity of compiling such a Plan
is not only meeting the stakeholders‟ aspirations but
to integrate the various forms of planning regimes
based on national planning systems, EU Directives
and International Conventions and Charters.
The foundation of this document dates back to 2009
when it was originally commenced and has been
gradually established based on the CHIMP
framework and criteria set by the HERO network
project. However, to enable this plan to be as fully
effective and accessible as possible we, have
ventured to apply the following measures and
standards ; (i) Create a Character Appraisal as a
system to analyse and evaluate fully the resources
and assets of the City (ii) Use the World Heritage
City Guidelines (iii) involve the EU 2020 Strategy (iv)
follow the reference made by the Leipzig Charter
and (iv) include the planning framework as applied
and used locally.
Why was the system of action planning applied?
The reason was fundamemtally based on being proactive
and dynamic. It is counter-productive to
create a plan without being activated. It is therefore
with this main aim that at the Valletta MidtermConference1
that the Action Plan was presented
with a system of project-based actions and funding
packages. This system was further sustained by a
delivery plan.
In the development of this Action plan together with
the Urban Local Support Group we considered that
a crucial component of any plan is the local citizens‟
intangible heritage of the City, that is, how they first
came to live within the community and how they live
within it today. In this regard apart from the Urban
Local Support Group we developed a system of
walk-abouts to understand better the
neighbourhoods with the Mayor and representatives
of the local community. Furthermore a survey was
created to used within the areas included within this
Action Plan to gain a deeper understanding of the
community and their personal histories and future
aspirations for this location and the City of Valletta.
This consultation process with the community, went
beyond that established by the current planning
legislation and beyond what the project was initially
aimed towards. However, it was to become a useful
tool to further develop the Action Plan as well as to
check the relationship the citizens‟ have to
UNESCO and Valletta‟s World Heritage status.
The publication of this Action Plan is in tandem with
its implementation stage. The project was launched
with the idea of developing multi-speed projects in
these three years and activate these in the shortterm.
This gave us an opportunity at an early stage
to check related indicators and propose
performance benchmarking.
We take the opportunity to thank all those who
supported the compilation and drafting of this project
in all its aspects especially Ms Gabriella Agius
Executive Secretary and the Local Support Group
and the Citizen‟s of Valletta who assisted us to
create this document.
Dr Malcolm Borg and Ms. Samantha Fabry
Heritage Enterprise
Action Plan Coordinators
1 HERO