Pembroke local council to vote against db’s City Centre, says that project remains ‘disproportionate’

The Pembroke local council will once again vote against the db Group’s City Centre project, although it acknowledged that a number of positive changes had been made to the project.

The council unanimously approved a motion which took note of the positive changes which had been made to the project after negotiations between the council and the db Group, but ultimately read that the development is “disproportionate” to the residential area.

The council listed a number of positive changes in the design, such as that public spaces increased by 40%, and that the scheduled ITS building will be retained, among other things.

“However, in spite of this, the project is enormous to the point that it is disproportionate when compared with the surroundings and the rest of the locality,” the statement read.

The PA had previously granted permission for the project, but this was revoked by the courts after they found a conflict of interest on the board.

In reaction, the db Group thanked the council for acknowledging the changes resulting from the meetings they had.

The group said, among other things that the tower now has seven floors fewer than before. “the equivalent of a third of the length a football pitch.”

“Overall, the developable area has been reduced by 50,000sqm.”

The Group spoke of the inconveniences to residents in the construction phase, and said that during the building phase, Pembroke’s community will be protected through a number of environment-friendly measures and that there will be no road closures around the construction site, and that heavy vehicles will not be allowed to pass through residential areas, among other things.

The Group said that during all their meetings with the Pembroke local council, particularly last year, “at no point did they say that they were going to vote against the project. So much so, that we had agreed in principle on a Memorandum of Understanding which says that if we make the changes they proposed (which they now acknowledge we did) they will come out in favour of the project. It is therefore incomprehensible that they now declare, out of the blue, that they will vote against.”