‘Manikata church’s scheduling came about too late’

The Chamber of Architects welcomed the decision taken by the planning authority to schedule the church of St Joseph in Manikata as a Grade 1 property but felt this came about too late.

The church was last Thursday given the highest form of protection by the planning authority board, which approved the scheduling of the 50-year-old structure, designed by Richard England.

The church was recently at the centre of controversy when a number of architects, including Prof. England himself, appealed to the authorities to protect it from a permit, granted on July 19, to build an attached store room and a religious education room.

The Chamber said it felt “this decision was taken too late in the day as such scheduling should have been declared before the development permit was ap-proved by the Environment Planning Commission”.

The chairman of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Austin Walker had said any interventions on the church would have to fall in line with the authority’s decision to schedule it.

“The scheduling will ensure any future interventions that may be carried out on this site will fully respect the rich and unique architectural value of this building,” he had said.

Mepa said the storage facilities and catechesis hall would be built under the church and include a number of significant amendments to the original proposal. “The development has been restricted to within the existing footprint and the original design and appearance of the church is to be retained,” it said.

The Chamber said it was not clear whether the grading covered just the church structure or included the parvis, which would be excavated should the development permit be brought into use.

It added that Mr Walker was quoted as saying that “The decision by the Mepa board to schedule as a Grade 1 property the St Joseph church in Manikata wraps up more than two years of intensive research, studies and consultation carried out by Mepa’s Heritage Planning Unit in the scheduling of most of Malta’s parish churches.” This posed the question: Was the team responsible for the processing of the application and eventual permit not aware of Mepa’s own efforts in this regard?

The Chamber drew Mepa’s attention to the fact that there were many other properties with remarkable architectural quality that deserved to be scheduled as Grade 1 properties.