The environment group Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) said this morning that yesterday's Development Control Commission's decision on the fate of the Art Nouveau houses in Dingli Street was a victory for common sense.
This, FAA, had been a difficult situation where the Local Plan categorisation and height limitation did not tally with the more precise evaluation of the houses by MEPA’s Heritage Advisory Committee and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.
The DCC Chairman recommended yesterday “that a revision of the present street categorisation and height limitation of the whole Dingli street is carried out prior to a decision being taken” on the Art Nouveau houses.
He further recommended that “abutting properties are not assigned different street categorisation, to ensure homogeneous planning solutions.”
The FAA explained that the finest house, 10 Dingli Street, had been described by the MEPA case officer as being almost of the standard of Grade 1 scheduling, ie, a national monument, while the 2006 Sliema Local Plan downgraded it from Category B+ to C!
A similar anomaly was made with the six fine Sliema townhouses on the corner of Milner and Howard Streets, which have been deprived of protection as part of Sliema’s Urban Conservation Area (UCA), much to the amazement of the Heritage Advisory Committee.
The FAA said the chairman's recommendation to revise the Local Plan for Dingli Street coincided with the formal request it had made, along with Sliema Local Council to MEPA, for a review of the Sliema Local Plan.
"FAA urges MEPA to commence this review as soon as possible, and furthermore MEPA is called on to desist in issuing permits which might violate the intentions of the review," the NGO insisted.
The group said it looked forward to seeing every part of Malta and Gozo regulated by a revised Local Plan which protected the rights of developers and residents alike.
It also called for the long-overdue start-up of the Heritage Fund which was established 20 years ago to provide financial assistance for the owners of heritage properties but was never activated.