Villa Bologna gets buffer zone

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) has provided Villa Bologna with a buffer zone, possibly ending the controversy that has been brewing for months over this historic landmark.

The authority announced yesterday it was scheduling the area behind the villa, known as Ta' Fgieni, as a buffer zone, to conserve the clear vistas from the villa's gardens.

The decision will effectively shoot down two applications for the building of four-floor apartment blocks as the scheduling limits development to two floors.

An imposing 18th century house, the villa, which was once owned by former Prime Minister Gerald Strickland, was in the eye of a storm last November when part of its gardens were earmarked by Mepa for two-storey development.

Recently Mepa went back on its decision by scheduling the villa and its gardens but environmental NGO Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA), the Attard local council and Alternattiva Demokratika kept mounting pressure for the scheduling.

In actual fact, they were lobbying for the area to be kept as an open space, with the council in particular hoping to have the area as a recreational space for residents.

Nonetheless, the FAA said yesterday it was very pleased with the authority's decision.

"While the FAA would have wished for a full implementation of Local Plan policies which state that Attard is short of public open spaces, this measure, at least, guarantees a low skyline for its current and future residents and avoids the sense of enclosure of higher buildings," the NGO said.

"FAA looks forward to similar initiatives, such as the scheduling of Villa Roseville in Attard, the country's only Art Nouveau country house, as well as other buildings of architectural and historic merit all over the island."