Sliema News 10-Aug-2016

Hotel proposal adds to Sliema's architectural woes

Plans to demolish a 19th century Sliema townhouse and replace it with a 3-star hotel have been slammed by an architectural historian.

Edward Said highlighted the planning application for 142 & 143, St Mary Street, Sliema in a post to a Facebook group dedicated to Malta's "daft and ugly architectural mishaps".

"Yet more of our country's national identity to be destroyed in the name of 'progress'?", Mr Said posted in 'Malta's Architectural Carbuncles'.

The planning application, filed by Charles Ellul on 29 March 2016, was validated on 20 July. Representations for and against the planning application can be filed until 5 September.

Source: timesofmalta.com


Sliema council ready to go to court to oppose Townsquare tower

The Sliema local council is ready to take its fight against the construction of a 38-storey skyscraper at Qui Si Sana all the way to court, its vice mayor has pledged.

“If our appeal at the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal fails, then we will challenge the Planning Authority’s decision in court. This project will severely impact residents, and there’s no way we’re giving up this fight,” PN councillor Kris Busietta told MaltaToday.

The request for an appeal was proposed by Alternattiva Demokratika councillor Michael Briguglio, a vocal critic of the project that will be developed by the Gasan Group.

Source: maltatoday.com.mt

Updated | Axiak’s views on Sliema tower obscured at PA meeting


The part of a memo sent to a member of the Planning Board by Environment and Resources Authority chairman Victor Axiak, in which he laid out his views on the impact of the 38-storey tower proposed in Sliema, was not read out at the public hearing on Thursday when the project was approved by a wafer thin majority of one vote.

Axiak was indisposed and did not attend the meeting. This meant that Axiak, as representative of the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), could not vote on both the four towers proposed for Mriehel by the Tumas and Gasan groups and the 38-storey tower proposed for Sliema by the Gasan group. Axiak had expressed concern in an email on the visual impact of the four towers proposed at Mriehel, which was read by board member Timothy Gambin during the morning session, when this development was being discussed. Gambin, an expert in underwater archaeology, was a vociferous supporter of both projects during Thursday’s public hearing.

Source: maltatoday.com.mt