Why Mepa fails on heritage sites

Alfred Zahra de Domenico was right in his letter of June 2 to be perplexed at a situation whereby Mepa first schedules a building as of Grade 1 importance and then allows certain changes to be made. The Casino Maltese building was rightly scheduled by Mepa as it is one of our really elegant buildings. Part of it was re-constructed after the war but in a manner that was very close to authentic.

When both Cordina and Ascot House changed their façade on the corner of Republic Street with Old Theatre Street there was a strong insistence on keeping them within sites is acceptable for Valletta's shop fronts according to a policy worked out by Mepa and the Valletta Rehabilitation Project back in the first year of what was then the Planning Authority. The Cordina façade and the Marks & Spencer façade on Old Theatre Street, facing the most important square of Valletta, are simply not acceptable and definitely not according to the shop fronts policy. They are both very interesting modern designs that would have been perfect elsewhere but not as part of a Grade 1 building and in our most important square. They are both wrong in terms of materials and volume. After years of insisting on retaining certain natural materials, how can we go back to experimenting with materials for shop fronts? It is a pity that both are done by one of our most important architectural firms and I repeat they would have been good designs elsewhere but not there.

Mepa fails precisely because it does not keep to its own rules and discriminates between applications. Instead of improving standards and design in our heritage sites it continues to use two weights and two measurers. No wonder people then get angry when their own application is refused precisely on the grounds of materials and design when much worse proposals are accepted.

Unfortunately, this is happening all the time in Valletta. Many applications for extra floors are refused but then are accepted in the most sensitive of buildings and areas.