Mġarr local council will set up 14 marble road plaques representing the Way of the Cross, following a decision by the planning tribunal.The tribunal overturned a refusal of the planning commission and gave the go-ahead for the permit so long as the council made the plaques smaller and presented a detailed method statement with the designs. The council filed an appeal after a planning commission refused the Via Crucis monuments application in 2011.

It wanted to put up 14 marble slabs measuring almost two metres by one metre in a rubble wall, which is in an outside development zone. The site is in a new road off Fisher Street, between the protected Ta’ Ħaġrat Temples.

In its refusal, the commission had said the development would have an “adverse impact” on an important archaeological site and clashed with planning policies.

The council had argued that the road leads to a cemetery and the “proposed religious meaning” was in line with the area – a “place of prayer and meditation”. However, the Heritage Planning Unit had contested the development, saying the plaques would be visible from the temples.

The council countered that they would be made of quarry-cut, brown marble to “blend in” with the wall.