The planning authority yesterday postponed a decision on a proposal to restore the Manoel Theatre façade to the way it is believed to have looked when it was built in 1731.

The plan is for hardstone cladding to be laid on the façade around the main door and the two lateral doors.

Speaking during a public hearing yesterday, architect David Drago, from Architecture Project, told the planning authority board that major alterations had been made to the theatre over the years and it needed to be aesthetically enhanced.

The intervention would mainly be based on a depiction of the theatre in the Cabreo de Vilhena, a register of properties that showed the façade as it looked in 1734.

The proposal is to build a reversible hardstone “screen” in front of the doorway façade area as indicated in the Cabreo plans, but without the columns as it is not certain they actually existed.

However, the case officer’s report raised concerns, saying cladding within urban conservation areas, and even more so on scheduled buildings like the theatre, was not permitted since it was considered to be an accretion alien to the fabric of historic buildings.

Approving this “drastic intervention” on a historic building would create a precedent for similar developments in the future that would compromise the design and aesthetics of UCAs.

But Mr Drago explained that the cladding would make it easier to reverse the restoration work.

“We will not be touching the façade, but the screen would be built on top of it, so that if we get new evidence of how the façade was built, we would be able to remove it,” he said. Also, using hardstone for this “screen” would help create a contrast between what was being altered and what was not.

The board agreed to defer the decision to November 8 to evaluate architect Drago’s clarifications.

In the meantime, it would also clarify the position of the National Commission for People with a Disability about accessibility of the theatre.