Scheduling Heritage in Malta

Abstract

Scheduling is a cultural heritage tool to provide statutory protection to heritage assets. This article is an analysis of the process of securing protection of immovable cultural heritage buildings and sites in the Maltese Islands. Through qualitative interviews with key stakeholders – namely, heritage professionals – this study exposes shortcomings and limitations of the existing local scheduling process. It proposes the public as a main stakeholder and lists several recommendations put forward by the participants for a more inclusive methodology of selecting and scheduling cultural heritage buildings and sites. It concludes by proposing the adoption of modes of rendering the process and assessment of heritage assets less subjective, notably through the adoption of the prototype computation of heritage values based on a heritage value grid.