A record 1,050 objections have been sent to MEPA to protest over plans by St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation to extend its museum, the NGOs Flimkien Ghall Ambjent Ahjar and Friends of the Earth said today.

The foundation is proposing to create an underground museum chambers by excavating St John’s Street. Alternatively, it has suggested building structures within St John’s graveyard along Merchants’ Street.

“We maintain that we cannot accept that a sizeable portion of our EU budget be spent on a project which will lead to exploitation and possibly damage Malta’s most precious national monument, when other feasible and simpler alternatives exit,” the two organisations said.

“A project of more reasonable dimensions would also leave funds available for more pressing projects, like the restoration of crumbling Fort St Elmo.”

The organisations argued that other parts of St John’s complex would be better used as exhibition space and funds earmarked for this project could also be used to purchase and restore a deteriorating palazzo close to St John’s to be used as a museum extension.