Sliema mayor Albert Bonello Dupuis has welcomed the news that the government is considering scrapping the Chalet redevelopment project along the Sliema seafront and called for the immediate embellishment of the promenade at Ghar id-Dud.
Environment Minister George Pullicino told The Times last week that the government was considering dismantling the derelict Sliema Chalet, opposite the Preluna Hotel, because of the long time it was taking for the redevelopment project to take off.
When contacted, the Sliema mayor said the government should now move on with the embellishment of the promenade by the Chalet.
"The base of the Chalet should be retained but the pillars and the platform at road level should be removed if the project is scrapped," Mr Bonello Dupuis said.
The council had been against the Chalet redevelopment project, mostly because the development proposal had not been faithful to the initial brief published by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) in 1999.
During the last sitting on the application, last November, the Mepa board had postponed its decision because of a number of sticky issues.
One such issue was that the development brief specified a car park accommodating between 150 and 180 cars while the developer proposed one that includes 280 car spaces.
Concerns were raised also about the fate of the natural caves at Ghar id-Dud after fears that they could be lost.
The developers, C & F Contractors, were asked to submit fresh plans to address the issues raised during that meeting.
The Times contacted C & F contractors and sought a comment about the possibility that the Chalet project might fall through but a spokesman replied that the company had no comment to make and would make any statements public when it wanted to.
The development had been met by strong opposition from the residents at Qui-Si-Sana who have thumbed down another car park at Qui-Si-Sana which lies within a five-minute walking distance from the Chalet.
C&F contractors had been granted the go-ahead on these two projects after putting in their bids in a public tendering process.