FAA calls on Mepa to refuse permit for Windsor Terrace development

Environment NGO Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar has again urged Mepa to turn down an application for a five-storey development in Windsor Terrace, Sliema, due to be considered tomorrow.

The local plan for the area imposes a two-floor height limitation.

FAA said it was a great shock when Mepa’s Development Control Commission had granted the developers an outline permit to build five floors.

“This would create illegal high party walls on either side, as the flats are to be built right in the middle of a row of seven identical, fine old two-storey Sliema townhouses. This streetscape had been protected, however the Mepa protection indicator had mysteriously disappeared around the time that this application was submitted.”

FAA said it has been calling for the rescinding of this outline permit since the DCC had overturned the case officer’s recommendation to refuse the permit without giving justification for such a reversal according to planning regulations.

It asked how Mepa could refuse others’ permits on the grounds of washrooms that were a few feet too large, then grant a such an outrageous permit for a five-floor block of flats in a two-storey, supposedly protected, urban conservation area.

“The granting of a full permit tomorrow would certainly undermine all Mepa’s claims of a new transparency and a level playing field for all,” FAA said.