PA requests downsizing of proposed Mtarfa international school extension

The Planning Authority has requested the lowering of the proposed school extension

within the grounds of the former Sir David Bruce Royal Naval Hospital in Mtarfa.

The PA’s planning board said the proposed building needs to be downsized to blend in better with the adjacent Grade 2 buildings.   

In 2019, parliament’s National Audit Committee unanimously approved a resolution put forward by then Education Minister Evarist Bartolo to transfer the property to Haileybury Malta Ltd.

The company is expected to set up and run an international school, a gap in the country’s educational set up that has been felt for the past few years with a growing foreign population.

The Mtarfa building and its environs covering 26,608sq.m, will be transferred on a 40-year temporary emphyteusis. The company will pay a ground rent of €50,000 per year for the first five years, going up to €125,000 after that. An annual increase in ground rent of 8% will also apply.

The proposed extension will see the construction of a sports hall and gym complex with added ancillary facilities for the use of the main school.

The original plans had proposed new underground facilities, but archaeological investigations revealed historic features, and excavation works were immediately ruled out.

The planning board called on the applicant to introduce and incorporate a green plan to reduce the carbon footprint of the school’s operation.

It also approved the construction of new skip management facility.

“To date, all bulk waste collected from skips was not being segregated but sent directly to the landfill. In line with the National Waste Strategy, this new facility will start sorting all the bulk waste received from skips. The project will be located on built up land between the two landfills, namely the existing Maghtab landfill and the engineered Għallis landfill, limits of Naxxar,” a PA statement read.