The headmaster of the Archbishop’s Seminary is asking the planning authority to sanction an illegally built underground car park in its grounds.
The application, which will be presented to the board today, also involves sanctioning a number of minor internal and external modifications at the Tal-Virtù school.
Rabat residents were furious when a permit was issued to extend the existing secondary school by adding a primary school and a car park. More than 200 signed a petition calling on the Archbishop to stop the construction.
The plan was also criticised by then Mepa auditor Joe Falzon, who described the case officer’s assessment of the extension permit application as “sheer incompetence or abuse”.
The case officer said an enforcement notice against the school over the illegal basement parking level had been issued.
The car park has 55 spaces with access from Godwin Ganado Street. This, together with the ground parking area, adds up to 109 spaces.
Minor changes are also being proposed to the approved landscaping scheme such as redesigning an open space and tree planting. The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage had not been consulted on the car park works, which had already been carried out without monitoring.
The superintendence “also draws attention to the archaeological sensitivity of the area and noted archaeological remains may have been destroyed by the works,” the case report said.
Nonetheless, the case officer recommended approving the application, as “the sanctioning can be permitted since, as noted by Transport Malta, it will provide more onsite parking spaces for the school and facilitate off-street parking for Tal-Virtù residential area”. The contested extension permit, issued in September, provides for an existing block in the Rabat area to be demolished.
The project will increase the student population from 250 to 825 and the staff by 60. The development extends the floor area of the existing Seminary building by 430 per cent and includes constructing a new primary school, 29 classrooms, a dormitory and six laboratories.