The Planning Authority has given the go-ahead for four extra floors, one of them receded, atop the Westin Dragonara Hotel in St Julian’s.

The application, which was approved unanimously by the PA today, will create around 40 new suites and 30 standard rooms on the side of the hotel overlooking St George's Bay.

The development will also add a garden over an existing tennis court, build a new tennis court on the area known as the camel pit, and create a spa at lobby level, losing four rooms.

The planning directorate, which recommended the plans for approval, said the extra floors would be considerably lower than the visible backdrop of the existing hotel, which rises around three to four floors above the proposed extension.

There were no objections from the Design Advisory Committee or the Environment and Resources Authority, among other consultations carried out by the PA.

Din l-Art Ħelwa, however, said the proposed extension defied the hotel's original terraced approach, which ensured that the building gradually sloped down to the foreshore.

“The extension not only blanks out the rest of the hotel behind it, but creates a 'wall' of buildings onto St George's Bay, with no terrace to soften the vertical volume,” the heritage NGO said.

The approved permit includes a condition requiring the developers to ensure public access to the foreshore, including the passageway abutting the suite terraces.

A condition in earlier permits issued on the site, requiring the dismantling of a boundary wall to ensure a 12m public foreshore area free of development, was also restated.