City Gate pharmacy files protest

The owners of a well-known pharmacy in Freedom Square, which is to be demolished to make way for the City Gate project, yesterday filed a judicial protest as they have not been given a temporary licence to operate from another store.

In the protest, Chemimart Ltd said that all the proprietors who have shops in Freedom Square and on the site of the old Royal Opera House had been offered some sort of remedy because they would be directly affected by the project.

They were given alternative premises or compensation.

The owners said that although the Commissioner of Land had offered them alternative premises in Valletta for their pharmacy, they could not move due to objections from a third party and to date no alternative had been offered.

The owners said that on February 15, they had requested a temporary licence to operate the pharmacy from other premises that they owned in Republic Street but despite the shop being fit to operate, the licence had still not been issued.

They complained that this constituted discrimination since an agreement for the relocation or compensation of businesses in the area had been reached, adding that this was causing damages not only to the company but also to their employees.