The Planning Authority issued an emergency conservation order after part of a World War II pillbox in San Ġwann collapsed on Sunday.

The back wall of the pillbox collapsed after last week’s torrential rains, San Ġwann mayor Etienne Bonello DuPuis said. He said that the outpost had been allowed to deteriorate, adding that the private owners of the land took no action to renovate the disintegrating structure.

The emergency conservation order calls on the owners to submit a draft restoration statement to the Planning Authority “to secure the site from further collapse”. The owners are also required to carry out remedial works to repair the damage within the next three months.

In 2016, NGO Wirt San Ġwann called for the only remaining pillbox in town to be protected after it became known the landowners were planning to remove it to make way for apartment blocks.

Wirt San Ġwann repeated its call last February.

“We’re very pleased with the outcome,” said the NGO’s secretary, Tony Cutajar, noting that the pillbox was an important part of Malta’s pre-war history.

However, he admitted he was disappointed the debris had not yet been removed, days after the back wall collapsed. “Pillboxes around the island have considerable historical significance, and this particular one, dating to the 1930s or 1940s, is clad in masonry in line with the War Office policy and strategy of camouflaging the structure by way of blending it with the rural surroundings,” Mr Cutajar pointed out in 2016.

The Planning Commission eventually instructed the developer to incorporate the pillbox into the design of the new apartment block.