Environment NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar said today it was extremely concerned by the information that Unesco was given regarding the permit granted for the building of  a house within the buffer zone of Ta’ Hagrat Temple, a World Heritage Site. The permit is currently being contested on appeal.

It was recently announced that Unesco was no longer objecting to the building.

The FAA said it stood by its view that the new building would infringe skyline views of the temples, and would also restrict the view of the temples from the main road.

It noted that three other planning applications in this same area were refused by Mepa on the grounds that they were located within the designated buffer zone, while in the instance where Mepa misguidedly granted a permit, the land was subsequently expropriated at great cost to the public, in order to ensure that nothing was built on that site.