Lija local council has officially told MEPA that it would object to any alteration to building permits in Transfiguration Avenue if such developments exceeded the two-storey cap imposed in September.

Lija mayor Ian Castaldi Paris, speaking at a press conference this morning, said the developer of a two-storey apartment block across the road from the landmark belvedere in the middle of Transfiguration Avenue had applied to build a basement.

The council had no objection to the basement as long as this did not become a semi-basement that would raise the height of the building, Dr Castaldi Paris said.

Last September MEPA issued a conservation order which effectively stopped the building of two apartment blocks of four storeys each and capped the building height at two storeys. Permits for those blocks had been issued on the basis of an anomaly in the local plans which switched the status of Transfiguration Avenue from a two-storey area to four storeys.

The revision was made after forceful protests by Lija residents and the council, who insisted that four-storey buildings would have over shadowed the historic landmark.