Council demands protection for Tigné officers’ mess

The Sliema local council has written to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), demanding the inclusion of the Tigné officers’ mess, the only remaining part of the barracks, in the list of protected historical buildings.

The site is now earmarked for a 40-storey hotel. GAP holdings, which have presented the hotel application, want to retain the façade of the building and build 40 storeys on it.

The new policy regulating the heights of hotels allows four- and five-star hotels to add any number of storeys over and above the number allowed in the Local Plan, as long as the resulting design “constitutes a landmark having unique aesthetic characteristics within the urban context”. 

But the new policy on hotel heights does not apply to development on “scheduled sites” like historical buildings, such as the former military barracks – which were part of Fort Cambridge – if the then officers’ mess were to be scheduled. 

Although the former officers’ mess is not yet a scheduled building, a MEPA spokesperson recently confirmed that the site “has been proposed by MEPA for grade two protection”. Such a designation would only permit internal alterations and the removal of more recent accretions. Effectively such a designation would not allow the application of the new hotel heights policy on this site. 

The building, which dates back to the early 20th century, once formed part of the Tigné Barracks complex which had its origins in the latter half of the 1800s. 

Today it is the only completely preserved remnant of this military compound. 

“Though various non-historic internal alterations were carried out over the years, it is still believed that much of the fabric is of significant quality, meriting further study and preservation”.

According to the council its architectural, military and social history are clearly evident and worthy of recognition. 

The council is also calling on MEPA to designate “a suitable buffer zone around the building so that its context is still legible”. 

MEPA’s own Fort Cambridge Development Brief approved in January 2006, describes the barracks as a “landmark building” which is to be retained due to its historical and architectural importance” which should remain a buffer between new higher development on the site and the surrounding residential blocks. 

“No additional floors over the third floor will be allowed over this landmark building,” the brief states. 

According to Sliema Green Party councillor Michael Briguglio this is reason enough why a skyscraper on this site should not be allowed.

“The 2006 local plan makes it clear that the maximum building height for the former military barracks should be retained at the existing four floors… This reason alone should have immediately led to a disqualification of the proposed skyscraper.”

But MEPA has confirmed that the development will not be assessed on the basis of the brief but on new policies regulating building heights approved in 2014.

According to Paul Attard, director of GAP Holdings, the effect of the hotel tower on the landscape has to be seen in the context that the Tigné peninsula has been earmarked as a high-rise area in the recently approved policy regulating building heights.

“Therefore, more high rise buildings are expected to complement one another,” Attard said.