PA approves destruction of vernacular structures at Nigret

The Planning Authority’s Executive Council has approved a zoning application to create a new road that will destroy part of an old farmhouse, and pave the way for residential development.

The development will also obliterate a mysterious oval rubble wall structure.

The road will pave the way for four-storey high residential development ovre a 3,400sq.m agricultural plot at Nigret, in Zurrieq, which was included in the development boundaries in 2006.

All board members of the PA executive council, except for the criminologist Saviour Formosa, voted in favor.

A decision had been postponed back in November by the Planning Authority board, to allow time for the PA’s planning directorate to further consult with the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage with regards to the farmhouse and the heritage value of the oval structure.

In its report the SCH dismissed claims by objectors that this ‘oval structure’ could signify the presence of a medieval structure or domestic use of the site in question, for which it found no evidence. But the SCH did not determine whether the structure has any heritage value or not.

PA chairman Martin Saliba did not allow objectors to speak during the meeting, prompting an objector to interject asking: “if the SCH says it is not a hut, can we at least know what it is?”

The SCH accepted that the vernacular farmhouse’s outer room had “cultural value” but was considered an accretion, and could be removed in view of the need to form the road, subject to a planning gain of €25,000 to mitigate “the loss of historic fabric and the truncation of the space delineating the original farming complex”.

But Saliba declared that the planning gain could not be imposed at this stage and and only when a full planning application is presented.

The SCH insisted on a redesign of the proposed road to minimise the damage on the vernacular building, but this was not even discussed by the board.

The PA’s case officer excluded a redesign of the proposed road, arguing that since the farmhouse is not scheduled, “adequate road design outweighs the retention of parts of an existing rural building, passageway and rubble wall.”

The new road is a part of a ring-road being formed around the south-eastern of Zurrieq through various zoning applications and the redesign of the road. In November 2021, project architect Daniel Micallef – the Labour deputy leader for party affairs – had argued that the redesign “would disrupt the continuity of the street”, which is in line with the other roads already approved.

The PA’s case officer disagreed with the SCH’s concern on the proposed height of the development. Noting the site is at the edge of Zurrieq, the SCH called for a transition between the urban area and the area outside the development zones (ODZ), to ensure the new buildings will not impact on the village skyline, especially when viewed from the higher Wardija area.

In reply to the SCH, the case officer claimed the 10.4m road was itself a “suitable transition” between the ODZ and the urban area.

The development at In-Nigret in Zurrieq was added to development zones in the infamous extension s carried out by the Gonzi administration in 2006. 

As recently decreed by the law courts, in a sentence which confirmed the legality of the extension of boundaries, approval of requests for development on such sites is not automatic, especially when development impacts on agricultural land and archaeological sites.

Judge Joanne Vella Cuschieri highlighted that each area released for development was subject to a planning control application that was open to objections. The judge observed that requests for development had in fact been refused in areas of Mosta and Ta’ Brag at Mellieħa where objections had been raised.

The court said that owners who truly had the environmental and historical value of such areas at heart, and “not merely the depreciation in value of their property,” should “make good use of legal tools to register their objections.”