Marsaxlokk historical barumbara could make way for new road

A case officer is recommending the approval of the dismantling and relocation of a historical tower in Marsaxlokk to make way for a new road through a pristine rural area.

The new road will link Triq Lepanto and Triq il-Kavallerizza.

A final decision will be taken by the Planning Commission on 16 September.

According to the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage the structure currently described as a barumbara (pigeon loft) was originally a “rural watch tower” which merits inclusion in the list of scheduled buildings.

The SCH which repeatedly called for the re-routing of the proposed road, had also insisted that the structure should be retained on site as it forms part of a cluster of historical buildings being just 33m from the scheduled Torri tal-Kavallerizza.

“Together, the barumbara, the Torri Kavallerizza and other rural vernacular structures in the area form a nucleus of architectural, historic and contextual significance which should be retained and enhanced,” the Superintendence said in a memo sent to the PA in 2020.

The application was originally presented in 2019 by the Tourism Ministry which later took a step back, with the Marsaxlokk local council taking over as the new applicant pushing the application.

The Environment and Resources Authority had also objected to the relocation of the tower to an ODZ location warning that the proposal affects two sites: the existing historic building at the edge of the development zone as extended by the 2006 ‘rationalisation’, and an ODZ site proposed for its relocation.

Environmentalists fear that the new road will result in an urban sprawl in this relatively unspoilt location.

While original plans earmarked an ODZ site on the valley side for the relocation of the tower, no alternative site is now being indicated.

Instead, the case officer is imposing a condition obliging the local council to present plans identifying a new site for the relocated tower in six months.

But crucially the condition does not make the dismantlement of the tower conditional on the approval of the new site for the tower.

This raises the prospect of the tower being dismantled irrespective of whether the relocation plans are approved or not.

The dismantlement of the historical tower is being justified by a letter from Infrastructure Malta confirming that the planned road is already in the agency’s Programme of Works and that the schemed road is visible on the Marsaxlokk Bay Local Plan.

The case officer claims that the intention to develop this road has been underway since 1995, when the Marsaxlokk Bay Local Plan was put into force and therefore the development of this schemed road “is considered justified from a planning perspective”.

A Restoration Method Statement presented by the local council states the masonry and apertures of the tower structure will be dismantled, numbered and stored in a safe place on site, for eventual reassembly or replacement as deemed necessary and in “keeping with best practice”.

The local council intends to issue a tender for the works whereby it shall be ensured that the materials are stored on pallets, specifying the location where this material will be stored, cleaned and screened.

When objecting to the development two years ago the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage had warned that the proposed relocation runs counter to the International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (The Venice Charter of 1964) – the charter states that “a monument is inseparable from the history to which it bears witness and from the setting in which it occurs. The moving of all or part of a monument cannot be allowed except where the safeguarding of that monument demands it or where it is justified by national or international interest of paramount importance”.

The Marsaxlokk council is not new to controversy having proposed the relocation of its offices to the garden of a public school. The application is currently suspended after the Prime Minister had announced that the plans were shelved during the electoral campaign.