Remove Ghajn Tuffieha illegalities, cultural heritage watchdog says

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage (SCH) is insisting that illegalities next to the derelict Riviera hotel in Ghajn Tuffieha are removed and not regularised, as requested by the owners last month.

The owners of the former hotel’s site want the sanctioning of two containers, a generator and the replacement of the dilapidated roof of a room, which is to be used as an office.

But the Superintendence noted the negative visual impact of the illegal structures on land which is inside an Area of High Landscape Value and what it described as a “significant cultural landscape”.

The Environment and Resources Authority is also objecting, noting the application is in breach of the Management Plan for the Natura 2000 site in which the derelict hotel is located. The plan excludes any “human activity or man-made structure [which] ruins the landscape and threatens the ecological integrity of the site and that no illegal activities shall take place within the site”.

The ERA also warned that approval would encourage further extensions on site, cumulatively leading to further pressures and intensification of development outside the building zones.

The two unsightly containers are currently being used for the storage of drinks and equipment next to the derelict hotel. A court case instituted by the government 11 years ago against the hotel owners, requesting their eviction from public land immediately beneath the derelict hotel, has been dragging on for the past decade.

Last April, the Lands Department told Mr Justice Toni Abela that negotiations between the parties were taking place, yet no agreement had been reached. The case has a complicated planning history, with the first application to construct a four-star 25-room hotel being turned down by the Planning Authority in 1994.

Then in 2004, the PA issued an outline permit for the demolition of the existing structure to build a three-storey building, incorporating a restaurant and multi-purpose hall. Subsequently the owners applied for a full permit for the three-storey structure, located further away from the receding cliff-face. An Environmental Planning Statement concluded that the project would represent an improvement over the present derelict hotel, since it would be a smaller structure and the surrounding debris would be removed. A renewal application was presented in 2009.

Owners still want hotel

Owner Kevin Fenech has reiterated plans for a luxury 40-room hotel, in court in a case instituted in 2008 by the Lands Department, and revealed that prior to 2013 Planning Authority officials had “made it clear they were not ready to consider a hotel because they wanted to reduce human activity in the area.”

But after 2013, Fenech contracted architects AP to present new plans for a luxury hotel aimed at tourists not being catered for by other providers. The hotel was to be located on the part of the land in Ghajn Tuffieha which includes both public land as well as land solely owned by Fenech.

So Fenech started negotiations with the government to exchange that part of the land, a Natura 2000 site, with “disturbed” public land which he promised to embellish through landscaping.  

“We started to discuss with the authorities and it seemed that there was some will on the part of the authorities for the project to take place,” Fenech said, claiming both the PA and the ERA had no objections except for insisting he keeps the same footprint of the derelict hotel.

But according to Fenech negotiations with the Lands Department had to stop after a new Lands Authority was appointed. “We than started talking with Carlo Mifsud. As soon as we were getting somewhere Mifsud was replaced by Deborah Schembri. We spoke to her, and started moving on… but then things changed again and James Piscopo was appointed [as CEO],” he said.

Fenech expressed frustration, saying he had found closed doors “sometimes because of an ant, a bird or because of light pollution… because of everything.”