MEPA heritage committee says no to Sliema naval clinic development

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority's internal heritage watchdog is objecting to a new eight-storey development incorporating Sliema's old naval clinic.

The Heritage Advisory Committee, chaired by Albert Ganado has described the proposal  "objectionable from the aesthetic point of view" as it does "not give due prominence to the existing façade of the naval clinic".

The panel also referred to the need to protect an air-raid shelter and other cultural features in the area.

The proposal, by Mark Gasan of the Gasan Group, incorporates Sliema's historical naval clinic into an eight-storey development. The latest planning application foresees the restoration of the existing façade, which is the only structure remaining from the clinic, and the sanctioning of the total, internal demolition of the building.

It also foresees the construction of an apartment block with offices at ground and first floor, and commercial outlets at the lower level and extending below a new public garden located on external piazza.

A restaurant is also being proposed on an elevated garden.

The development will include two levels of underlying basement garages.

Original plans submitted in 2006 had envisioned a 15-storey tower replacing the historical naval clinic's façade in Ghar il-Lembi square.

But in the latest plans submitted in July the façade is retained and incorporated in the high-rise development.

The naval clinic, a military hospital dating back to the 19th century, is a Grade 2 scheduled building, for which permits to demolish "will not normally be given" according to the Structure Plan.

But MEPA rules allow alterations to the interior if they are carried out sensitively.

In June 1996, a bizarre decision by the MEPA appeals board decreed that the façade should be dismantled in its entirety and actually re-erected somewhere else.

But in 2003, MEPA refused an application to erect a basement car park on four levels as well as ground floor shops on the so-called 'pjazzetta', including the demolition of the naval clinic. MEPA said the total demolition was "unacceptable" and contrary to the structure plan.

Despite MEPA's rejection, another application for the development of the naval clinic was submitted by Gasan in 2004, for the construction of an apartment block with commercial outlets and an underlying garage extending below the garden, designated for public use.