The Planning Authority has asked for plans for four villas along the Wignacourt aqueduct in Attard to be downsized, amid concerns over the impact on the Grade 1 scheduled monument.

The PA board opted in a hearing on Thursday to allow the developer to amend the plans and to submit a new works statement for consideration by heritage authorities, to ensure the safety of the 17th century monument.

Plans to demolish an existing villa, flanked between the Wignacourt aqueduct on one side and the 19th century railway embankment on the other, to build four new properties with pools, had drawn objections from more than 100 residents, the Attard council and environmental groups.

The plans also included a new access road running along the aqueduct.
Objectors argued that the aqueduct - which runs along the side of Peter Paul Rubens Street and which objectors say is the one of the few remaining sections which exist in the original context – would be seriously compromised by the plans.

The proposal had nevertheless been recommended for approval by the PA case officer, citing the lack of objection by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage (SCH), which said the road would be set back from the aqueduct and would not damage it.

During a PA board hearing on Thursday, residents’ architect Ruben Abela pointed out that the new road would have to be built around two metres above the aqueduct, reducing it “to a culvert between two roads”.

He pointed to an alternative proposal, put forward by Din l-Art Ħelwa, to instead have a footpath along the aqueduct as part of a heritage trail, running parallel to a similar trail being created by the local council along the nearby Railway Embankment.

Other objectors raised concerns about the traffic arrangements, which they said would create a new bottleneck in the area and “nullify” the effects of the Central Link upgrade project along that stretch of road.