Jerma Hotel: more speculation by the few at the expense of the many

The redevelopment of the Jerma Palace Hotel site will involve land speculation, according to AD Chairman Carmel Cacopardo speaking at a press conference held yesterday in front of the site.

The site has been abandoned and vandalised since 2007. The Jerma Palace Hotel was the only hotel operating in the south of the country and its closure undoubtedly frustrated efforts to bring tourism to the south of Malta, Cacopardo observed.

“Today, the Planning Authority is considering a planning application for the old hotel to be demolished and replaced by a new development”, he said. “Like the Pembroke development, this site occupies around 38,000 square metres along the coast. In the past, the practice was to sacrifice land along the coast in order to develop the tourism industry.

“Now the development will consist of a hotel together with residential development. The developer wants buildings with a height of between 13 and 15 storeys. This new monster on the coast of Marsaskala set to include 166 flats and a 250-bed hotel.”

AD noted that: “The exaggerated height of the building being proposed is not only at odds with other developments in the area but will also hide St Thomas’s Tower.

“When the hotel was originally built, in 1982, the government had granted the land for tourism purposes, ie a hotel. In those days, developing the tourist industry meant sacrificing parts of the coast. Nowadays, the same land will be used for land speculation. This is unacceptable. The coast should be accessible to the public and, therefore, the Jerma site should be taken back into the public domain and turned into an open public space. The coast belongs to the many and not to the few.”