The St. John’s Foundation has applied for MEPA Planning Permission to roof over the Co-Cathedral's cemetery where lie the heroes of the 1565 Great Siege for the installation of ticketing machines, two large lifts and a souvenir shop over the same cemetery. In order to expand its exhibition space to display the Co-Cathedral's Flemish tapestries and other collections, the Foundation plans to excavate a large underground museum stretching from Merchants’ Street to St. John’s Square, linking to the water cisterns near Republic Street. Lift shafts, passages and emergency exits will have to be excavated under the Cathedral to connect the crypt to the gallery.

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) disagrees with this project because the Foundation's plans will bring about the desecration of the cemetery and pose a huge risk to the stability of the Cathedral. Other digging in the vicinity of St. John's has already damaged Cathedral frescoes. The excavation of the museum will create a quarry at least four storeys deep and will cause years of disruption to Valletta, its residents, visitors and the business community.

This extravagant project is unsustainable since underground viewing chambers require a great amount of energy to operate, requiring enormous air-conditioning, dehumidifying and ventilation systems.

FAA also objects to this project because underground viewing chambers always run the risk of storm water and/or drainage flooding. This can be avoided if the Foundation chooses one of the many available options such as:

• Acquiring one of the dilapidated buildings in the immediate vicinity of the Co-Cathedral that could be restored to exhibit the religious artefacts, thus liberating space for the Flemish tapestries within the Cathedral museum;

• Moving offices and the laboratories out of the Cathedral to a nearby building;

• Reorganising the Museum to make better use of underutilised space;

• Hanging the Flemish tapestries in the Great Hall of the Sacra Infermeria, which not only offers the right proportions and the right Baroque setting, but would start to regenerate lower Valletta;

• Hang the Flemish tapestries where they were always meant to hang historically – within the Cathedral from the feast of Corpus Christi to the Feast of St John. The rest of the year they would be placed in storage to rest as is done in other museums all over the world.