Heritage warning
The construction of more empty flats in heritage gardens harmed residents’ health and undermined Malta’s tourism policy, an environmental lobby group has warned.
In a statement, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar said the planning authority’s practice of only scheduling parts of heritage gardens made the construction of flats in such gardens possible.
It was referring to the recent approval of projects in the gardens of Villino Chappelle in St Paul’s Bay, Sliema’s Villa Bonici and Villa Mekrech in Għaxaq.
Yet the Government was doing its best to recover parts of the fortifications that were taken over by private individuals, the FAA said.
“It is just as unthinkable as building flats in Palazzo Parisio, a model of what can be achieved with such properties,” it said.
It praised what it called the recent move in favour of preserving heritage buildings but said Mepa was failing in its responsibility to ensure owners carried out basic maintenance of scheduled properties.
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Josianne Carabott
Dec 30th 2012, 17:59
Nowadays d government should make a policy that these private gardens that all merits protection should be safeguarded from any construction, planting more trees in them to clean the air and as it is a garden it is a place for recreation and not building flats, we need to appreciate more what we have.I went to Verseille at France and it is amazing and here we destroy our gardens like Gnien Mekrech
Astrid Vella
Dec 30th 2012, 16:45
It should be highlighted that in its press release FAA welcomed the recent initiatives to protect heritage property by the declaration of Public Domain & by the grants given to home-owners and companies to cover restoration expenses. It is these development companies that should be conserving the properties they own, like Villa Drago, instead of allowing them to fall into disrepair or worse.
kenneth mahoney
Dec 30th 2012, 15:07
I strongly agree with the article above, because in my opinion I think that the planning authority would take in concern these heritage gardens and approve them, because the constructions of more empty flats in heritage gardens harmed resident's health and undermined the tourism policy, they must be approved and protected as others has done, and also there must be ensure owners to carry out maintenance.
Peter Murray
Dec 30th 2012, 10:48
Whose responsibility is it to ensure that properties are not left in a basic shell condition for many years along with unoccupied properties left to rack and ruin by their owners as we cant put all the blame on MEPA even though they are immensely culpable in their many failings.One wonders if the staff are aware what the letter E signifies in its acronym?
Joe Grech
Dec 30th 2012, 13:46
Actually, Peter, in this case MEPA is responsible as it has the legal mandate to ensure basic maintenance of scheduled properties, and if this is not carried out by the owners, it has the duty to step in, carry out the repairs and bill the owners. I do not know if this has ever been done, so far. Our calls for this action on specific cases have only met with excuses.
Please choose the reason of your report below: