The Sliema Residents Association is backing the local council, which is objecting that a hotel within the Midi project in Tignè be turned into more residential apartments.

The association is appealing to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to reconsider the high-impact project and the potential it offers to allocate the area as a public space.

Its appeal was made also in view of recent comments by Mepa chairman Austin Walker who warned that hotels outside development zones would not be allowed to be converted into apartments.

The association shares the council's concern about the overdevelopment of the area, home to about 13,000 residents. "The adverse effects of such development pressure are not only in respect of the visual impact but also in terms of the serious side effects for Sliema residents' health and quality of life," it said.

Malta did not need more hotels, as evidenced in negative comments by several hotel owners, the association said, noting Mepa's own views in the 2006 North Harbours Local Plan that Sliema was already overdeveloped and could not handle major additions.

"Sliema's infrastructure is already stretched beyond capacity and will not cope with the Tignè mega development projects when these areas become populated and active," it said.

Overdevelopment at Tignè would precipitate traffic gridlocks, car parking problems and air and noise pollution, it continued.

"Regrettably, neither Mepa nor the Transport Authority seem to have found adequate solutions to overdevelopment. Yet, the former continues to approve projects that will increase the population density while allowing the destruction of the few green spaces left."