Planning Authority to make an incision in the bastions

The Planning Authority is set to approve its own application to make an incision within the bastions to accommodate access to the car park from the Enforcement Directorate block.

The case officer is recommending approval but during a meeting last month the Planning Commission asked for 'clearance' from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH) which had not sent any feedback on this application. The case officer had interpreted the SCH's silence as a no objection.

In an objection Flimkien Ghall-Ambjent Ahjar warned that if approved, this application will set a precedent for “anyone to start hacking away at the bastions and to hollow them out from within to provide access.”

The organization warned that the integrity of Grade 1 Scheduled buildings must be respected fully and not “impinged upon by interventions which damage and distort the physical and material fabric of these historical gems.”

The proposal also foresees the demolition of the Planning Authority’s current Enforcement block whilst retaining the external facade, and the construction of a receded additional floor.

The proposed setback floor will exceed the height of the existing buildings forming part of the Planning Authority complex, which are all two floors high. This meanse that it will slightly exceed the height of the bastion walls opposite the premises, but not the height of the Capuchin Chapel located on top of the bastion walls.