Ombudsman vindicates Mellieħa local council’s complaint about dilapidated Fort Campbell

The Office of the Ombudsman upheld a complaint filed by Mellieħa’s local council regarding unsafe, dilapidated structures at Fort Campbell, which spent years chasing the Lands Authority to cordon off buildings that have fallen apart over decades of disuse.

Fort Campbell, which used to be a British military installation during the Second World War, is now one of three major sites which the government promised to turn into national parks, alongside the White Rocks complex in Pembroke and Manoel Island in Gżira.

In the conclusions of his report, Commissioner for Environment within the Ombudsman’s Office Alan Saliba noted that “reports of danger posed by the current state of Fort Campbell in Mellieħa  were ignored by the Lands Authority is justified”.

Saliba recommended that “all the buildings within the site” should be blocked or cleared with immediate effect since they pose a danger to the general public. Despite its ruinous state, the site is a rare open space which is popular with various different outdoor hobbyists.

In a brief press release about the Ombudsman’s verdict, Mellieħa’s Mayor, Gabriel Micallef, stated that “this is not a political matter”, describing it instead as “a matter of public safety”.

“It should never have taken this long, nor required intervention at this level, for such basic and urgent action to be acknowledged,” the Mayor adds.

The local council’s initial attempts at reaching out to the Lands Authority were only partly successful.

While the Lands Authority did install temporary signage in the area to warn visitors about the dangerous structures on the site, it repeatedly rebuffed calls from the local council to adequately secure the buildings in question.

Correspondence between the local council and the authority, which was also published in the Environment Commissioner’s report, shows that the authority appeared to be satisfied with having fulfilled the legal requirement to warn visitors of risks associated with entry into abandoned buildings.

“The Lands Authority has installed a number of signs on the site subject to this complaint, to warn the general public that entry is prohibited. Although the Mayor claims these are not enough, it is to be stated that Chapter 16 of the Laws of Malta Article 1031 declares that ‘every person is responsible for damage which occurs through his fault’,” one of the authority’s responses reads.

“This provision is interpreted so that if the victim consented to the risk, then the damage does not arise from an unlawful or negligent act of the property owner,” the response adds.

After the government formally announced that Fort Campbell was to become one of three large national parks promised by the government, the Lands Authority changed tack, arguing that it would have been effectively pointless to restore the abandoned military outpost when Project Green was now going to be responsible for a full refurbishment of the whole area.

Yet again, Mellieħa’s local council persisted, pointing out that the project would likely take years to materialise and that the risks associated with dangerous structures would remain in the meantime.

A site inspection by the Environment Commissioner’s office last week confirmed that there was only one sign notifying visitors about the dangers posed by the abandoned structures.

The Commissioner further noted that, despite the signage on site, people were still using the site anyway – including the very same structures which the local council sought to cordon off.

“Signs are neither sufficient to physically prevent the public from entering nor are they enough to exonerate the Lands Authority from any criminal liability,” the Commissioner concluded.