I refer to the article entitled ‘Sliema flats plan unthinkable, says FAA’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, August 31).

The NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar admitted that it has been objecting to the over-development of Sliema and St Julian’s since 2006. Where was the NGO and what did it do prior to 2006, regarding Sir Arturo Mercieca Street, which for the past 30 years resembled a war zone?

Development in Sir Arturo Mercieca Street has been going on for the past 30 years, including some illegal developments, making the life of residents in the lower part of this street simply unbearable with noise starting at 6am, dust, threats from builders and even occasionally rendering entering one’s house impossible.

On every occasion, calling the police, the Sliema council and lobbying with the Sliema district parliamentarians to intervene proved totally useless.

Why does FAA object now, after more than 80 per cent of the terraced houses in this part of the street have been replaced by about 80 apartments?

The façade of the two, two-storey terraced houses shown in your photo will retain all the present features, plus two receding storeys, which will not be visible from the road (resembling more a rocky moon surface than a road), not to mention the fact that the development will be making use of the garage entrance from the adjacent new building, which was completed a few months ago, in order to retain the two-storey façade in its current state.

The reference to the paved yard with trees is, to say the least, alarmingly incorrect. The yard is paved and there are only four trees, which suffer from stunted growth due to lack of sunlight because they are dwarfed by adjacent six-storey high-rise developments surrounding and overlooking the yards from two sides.