Eight floors too high at Spinola Bay

Having visited these islands for the last 20 years, I have a great love for the Mediterranean characteristics and beauty of many locations in Malta and Gozo, unfortunately frequently mixed with destructive and out-of-character building development.

Spinola Bay always enthralled me even when Portomaso Tower was built, as this building stood up as an elegant landmark complementing the low-lying nature of Spinola Bay. I was, however, sadly shocked on my latest visit to find a new, ebullient, uncharacteristic and ugly building truly destroying the previous visual harmony of this idyllic inlet.

I cannot help but ask how this hugely out of place building was permitted by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. How was a permit issued to construct a 13-floor building when the local plan only allows five floors on the site? Do local plan limits only apply to some, with others being given permits that flagrantly ignore the conditions of the planning regulations applied to others? Besides the extra eight floors, the same building has occupied part of the public road connecting Church Street to St George’s Road; and even here this new building is several floors higher than the adjacent Portomaso apartments.

It is high time that the authorities and Mepa become more judicious in their consideration of development applications before all that has been carefully protected in the last 20 years is lost forever.