Updated: SRA insists on preservation of Villa Bonici

The Sliema Residents Association is insisting on the transformation of Villa Bonici in Sliema into a home for the elderly.

The association made its proposal in a report it presented Environment Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco, in which it highlighted its concerns about the villa and its environs.

The SRA noted that the Planning Authority had acknowledged that Sliema was overdeveloped with a serious lack of open spaces.

Transport Malta also claimed that Sliema’s roads infrastructure was overloaded and further development would precipitate the already precarious traffic problems, including the air pollution levels which already exceeded EU levels.

SRA noted that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority continued to grant development permits, even though these defied sensible sustainable town planning logic.

Mepa favoured the interests of developers to the detriment of the residents’ rights to live in a clean and healthy environment, as stipulated by the European Union directives, the association said.

It questioned the authority’s removal of the Villa Bonici site from ‘Urban Conservation Area’ status, placing it in an area with ‘unlimited height’ status.

The SRA said it wanted to preserve the identity of the villa, its farmhouse and terraced gardens, creating an open space for the fulfilment and enjoyment of the public.

It also wanted to rehabilitate an existing building to provide the promised and long overdue public residential home for the Sliema elderly, together with off-street parking.

SRA said that its proposals for that Villa Bonici were dismissed by Dr Demarco and Mepa chairman Austin Walker, who was apprehensive about the financial outlays and legal implications of the official interventions proposed by the.

The SRA said the ‘powers that be’ seemed to abdicate their obligations on fundamental civic rights, such as those relating to health issues and the well being of residents, under the pretext of legal constraints and financial limitations.

“The association is alarmed by such short sightedness as this may ultimately also prejudice economic activity with the loss of the locality’s attractivenes to local and foreign visitors and provoke an upward spiral of the social and healthcare financial burdens of the local population,” it said.

SECRETARIAT INSISTS VILLA IS PRIVATE PROPERTY

The Parliamentary Secretariat for Tourism, the Environment and Culture in a reaction, said that while it appreciated that people might have varying opinions on how certain properties should be developed or restored, the underlying fact which needed to be respected was that this was private property and not public land.

During the meeting held with Dr. de Marco, the SRA’s proposal to “preserve” Villa Bonici and its gardens was to change the local plan in such a manner as to develop the property into a public garden and old people’s home.

It was explained to the SRA’s representatives that this property was privately-owned and not government property. Therefore, putting into effect the SRA’s proposal could be considered by the courts to be tantamount to an expropriation of the property in question.

Expropriation in the “public interest” had to be proven and compensation paid to its owners against its market value, in accordance with basic fundamental rights to private property which our Constitution and the ‘European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’ grant to each individual.

During the same meeting, Dr de Marco urged the SRA to look at Sliema holistically, and he welcomed proposals on Sliema in general concerning height limitations in the area.