Sliema - earmarked for demolition

The need for urgent reform in the actual workings of Mepa becomes increasingly evident as calls are made from different sources for the review of controversial project approvals.

The front page of X-plain Issue No. 10, a Mepa publication, proudly headlines Over 1,100 Timber Balconies To Be Restored. The accompanying text states that "...of the 1,108 applications that were received, Sliema residents were the ones to respond most positively" and goes on to state that Mepa encourages residents to adopt "good practice", also putting forward comprehensive advice on the care of limestone façades, elimination of eyesores, etc. Two photographs showing balconies and façades in a style that underpins the Sliema Urban Conservation Area [UCA] are featured prominently on the page.

One then wonders why the large house on the Howard/Milner street junction, along with a further two houses on each of its flanks, is now at the risk of imminent demolition to be replaced by yet another huge and soul-less apartment block - PA06269/06 refers. This five-house complex accounts for 50 per cent of the street façade of the block on both Howard Street and Milner Street and demolition will irrevocably change both streetscapes for the worse.

These houses, along with others on the same street frontage, were originally included in the Sliema UCA. Previous applications for demolition of some of these houses, whether whole or partial, were regularly turned down by Mepa, but for no logical reason these buildings, which all feature the "architectural heritage" and "timber balconies" that Mepa now purports to preserve at considerable expense to the taxpayer, were pencilled out of the Sliema UCA when the Sliema Local Plan was adopted a while ago.

Applications for demolition of buildings a few metres away from this site, and so lying within the UCA, are all turned down by Mepa in observance of its policy of preservation of our architectural heritage. Yet the five houses now at risk of destruction, along with a further three bordering on the Milner Street frontage, have been deprived of their right of protection under the Sliema UCA, without any justification, in defiance of Mepa's own policy, and under the provisions of a Local Plan that has been adopted following what has been perceived as a defective consultation procedure.

In the above context, the highlighted sub-text reading "Mepa at the helm in conserving Maltese traditional architectural heritage" under the X-plain front page headline becomes a cause for worry to the public, rather than one of comfort and assurance.

Remedial action must be taken by Mepa and whatever other authority that may be concerned to immediately give the sites in question due protection to eliminate all possibility of a significant part of our architectural heritage being lost forever. And here it is as well to record that this is now becoming more of a case of saving what is left of Sliema - and that all the more valuable to preserve.