The Labour Party's representative on the planning authority board, Roderick Galdes, yesterday voted against an EU-funded project that will see the demolition of a British-built oil depot between Vittoriosa and Kalkara and the restoration of the bastions behind it.
Mr Galdes was the only Mepa board member to vote against the project, insisting that while the bastions were of historic importance the oil depot built by the British were of historical value too.
The area known as the Hornworks of the Post of Castille is an important stretch of the Vittoriosa bastions facing Kalkara Creek and the site of the most significant battles of the Great Siege of 1565.
It consists mainly of two smaller bastions joined together by a short curtain wall. The configuration of this part of the Vittoriosa defence wall dates from the pre-1565 period but was reconstructed after the siege and again during the 1700s under the Order's French military engineers.
A representative of the Restoration Unit told the Mepa board that the proposed restoration works on the historic bastions included the demolition of the early 20th century building grafted onto the bastions by the British in order to serve as an oil bunkering depot.
The building is considered unrelated to the historic fortifications and has served mainly to obscure them from view.
This intervention will help make the area more imposing, re-establishing the relationship between the historic ramparts, their foreshore and the sea.
The project, which was given the go-ahead yesterday, will be co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and is expected to cost about €46,000.
At first, Mepa's Heritage Advisory Committee was of the opinion that the request could not be favourably considered because the building formed part of the harbour's industrial archaeology and was of architectural and historical importance. However, in a subsequent meeting, the committee reconsidered the application and noted that this was an interesting building but also "an accretion, which is distracting the legibility of the bastions and causing damage to same".
The committee said the bastions should take priority over the building and did not find any objection on condition that the building was adequately documented from the interior/exterior through drawings and photographs.
Consulted on the application, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage said the oil depot was supported on beams that were embedded directly into the seaward walls of the Post of Castille and were therefore damaging the fabric of the fortifications.
In addition, the Superintendence said the application also had to be seen in the light of an extensive and ongoing programme being undertaken by the Restoration Unit of the Works Division with the aim of restoring and valorising the harbour fortifications.
During a Mepa board meeting discussion on the application, it was suggested that parts of the naval oil depot would be conserved and placed in a public garden for people to admire. But the board voted against the proposal.