The planning authority will be deciding on a proposal to build a seven-storey block on Pietà's historic seafront next week, a move which would signal the beginning of the end, according to an NGO.

Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar has filed an urgent request for the planning decision on a historic building at Pietà seafront to be taken by the full planning board rather than by the three-person planning commission.

FAA said in a statement that the board was deciding on an application “that may herald the beginning of the end of Pietà's historic seafront” on June 2, just one day before the election.

"The PA is set to give the go-ahead for the mutilation of a legally protected Grade 2 scheduled historic villa along the marina with the applicant requesting the construction of a seven-storey apartment block in its place."

The FAA said that if the butchering of this historic building was approved, as had been recommended by the Planning Authority's case officer, it would affirm the PA's role as nothing more than a rubber-stamping authority, supporting those trying to “make hay while the sun shines” who had been collectively destroying Malta's unique identity over the past 30 years, to the detriment of the Maltese public.

The proposed development.