Hotelier claims two weights, two measures

Hotelier Anġlu Xuereb has accused the planning authority of applying two weights and two measures when it allowed the Church to build a dividing wall between a 200-year-old chapel and the terrace of his Sliema hotel.

He said he himself had been forced to leave an 11-metre recess between the five-star Palace Hotel and the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Divine Grace in High Street when the leisure property was being constructed, so as "not to impair the setting... of a Grade 1 scheduled building".

Construction of the brick wall, intended to be 12 courses high, started on Wednesday in a narrow alleyway that divides the two buildings.

Mr Xuereb yesterday morning filed an urgent application in court demanding the issue of a prohibitory injunction to halt the building of the wall. Mr Justice Raymond Pace upheld the request until the court hears the case in more detail.

Sitting on the terrace of his hotel adjacent to the half-finished wall, Mr Xuereb explained that when he was granted the permit to build the hotel in 2004, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority drew up a list of conditions he had to adhere to. One of them was the retention of the buffer between the hotel building and the chapel.

He complained that the wall now being constructed was only three metres away from the chapel, a case of two weights and two measures, he said. A Church spokesman said the wall was covered by a permit and a Mepa spokesman confirmed this, adding that it was "in conformity with Mepa regulations".

Mr Xuereb, one of Malta's leading developers, has had a somewhat rocky relationship with the Church over the early 19th century chapel, thought to be the oldest in the locality. The dome and inner walls were damaged during trenching works in preparation for the laying of drainage pipes to service the hotel in March 2007 and the developer has had to pay for repairs to be carried out.

Three years earlier, restoration works were carried out on the chapel financed by Mepa. The extensive works included the restoration of the façade and the inner walls, the ceiling and dome.

Another issue between the two parties relates to the ownership of the alley where the wall is being built. While the Church insists it owns the alley, Mr Xuereb maintains that it became his property on the strength of a notorial deed in 1995. The issue is now before the courts.

A church dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary once lay where the present chapel stands but it was destroyed during the French occupation between 1798 and 1800. The new chapel was consecrated in May 1804.