When will Mepa say stop?

It seems that another lovely, old house in my town of Sliema has caught someone's eye and is earmarked for wholesale destruction.

I have just seen this morning a notice attached to the wall of no. 6, St Margaret Street, Sliema c/w Melita Street. This lovely corner house is going to be demolished and replaced by a guesthouse if the permit goes through which at the rate that Mepa are dishing out these permits won't take very long.

I had thought that this part of Sliema was not earmarked for "development" but it seems that I am wrong. Not even the façade of this house is going to be retained and please I don't wish to hear any architect or anyone else for that matter saying that this is not a period house. It might not be a period house (what good did that do to the house in Ghar il-Lembi Street) but it was built in the early 1900s as were all the other beautiful, old houses that have been destroyed.

Going round Sliema, which was once a really beautiful place, there is hardly one single street that hasn't fallen under the greedy eyes of some developer or other. When is Mepa going to say "stop"?

At one time it was said that buildings were not supposed to be built more than twice the width of the street they were in. Well, that rule has fallen by the wayside like so many others and the utter destruction of anything that looks elegant has become the rule not the exception. There should not even have been an exception in the first place. What is left, not only in Sliema but in most parts of the island, that can be called Maltese architecture? Does anyone really think that tourists want to see a concrete jungle wherever they go?

If we have to demolish old houses and replace them by hideous monstrosities, can't Mepa at least make the developers build the façades in the old style instead of what looks like sardine cans? Is it possible that anyone wanting somewhere to live would rather pay thousands upon thousands to live in a flat with people above and below, where children can never play or have to creep around like mice, where there is no access to the roof because this is now a penthouse and where you can hardly breathe because everyone can hear you, instead of in a lovely, old house with perhaps a little garden for children to play in, with complete access to the roof and all the charm and beauty of a house lovingly built by craftsmen?

When is it going to stop? There is hardly any sun left in Sliema. Wherever you go there are these monstrous things called flats towering above you. They used to have a word for these monstrosities in the old days and that was kerrejja. Are these so called luxury flats any better than the old kerrejja apart from the fact that they cost an arm and a leg? You can hardly open a window without seeing someone next door or behind you looking in.

Can anyone at all stop this madness before the charm and beauty of this lovely island of ours are totally destroyed? Does anyone care?