Building within the gardens of culturally rich heritage sites such as old villas was unacceptable, environmental campaigners Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar said yesterday.

In a press conference held outside the 20th century Villa Chapelle in St Paul’s Bay, FAA’s spokeswoman Astrid Vella said that in the recent scheduling of old villas across the island, only part of their gardens were included. This meant that the rest of the area was open to development.

One-third of Villa Chapelle’s gardens could not be touched while the rest was subject to a planning application for 54 flats and 90 garages, she said.

A similar application had already been turned down by the Malta Environment Planning Board in March, when the 64 flats and 100 parking spaces proposed were deemed to constitute overdevelopment of the area.

The developers filed an appeal that was upheld by the Environment and Planning Tribunal, giving them the opportunity to resubmit fresh plans that might get approval, Ms Vella said.

In a statement of clarification, a planning authority spokesman said the tribunal had ordered the applicant to submit fresh drawings according to several criteria, “but these drawings are not yet deemed to be conforming to the criteria stipulated in the tribunal’s decision”.

Furthermore, the planning authority considered that the use of the basement/semi-basement and penthouse levels as habitable constituted an overdevelopment of the site, “in line with its original decision on the application”.

Villa Meckrich, in Għaxaq, has also been waiting for full scheduling for five years and was designated a green area to be protected in 2006.

Yet an outline development permit was issued, Ms Vella said.

A public hearing on the matter is expected to be held this morning.

Mepa said that a few weeks ago, this villa was given a grade 2 level of protection for its architectural and contextual value.

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