NGOs cry foul over Cold War facility below db Group project, demand Emergency Conservation Order

● ‘We cannot understand how such features have failed to show up on any of the studies presented to the public’

A group of non-governmental organisations yesterday cried foul over the previously unreported existence of an Cold War facility located beneath St George’s Barracks, where the db Group is currently building its already controversial €300 million City Centre project on the former Institute of Tourism Studies site in St George’s Bay.

Following the Planning Authority’s approval of the project last year, three local councils, several NGOs and residents have come together to appeal against the decision.

Yesterday, the NGOs revealed the previously undeclared existence of a 1950s Cold War facility that is due to be destroyed to make way for the project. The NGOs said they had uncovered plans and evidence which, they say, have only now come to light and which show the existence of an underground Cold War bunker created to house a sub-station in the 1950s and an engine room dating to the 1930s.

They make the point that: “These features are of considerable significance from an industrial heritage as well as a military point of view, but they have not received any mention in the heritage assessment reports commissioned by the developer.

“Both features would be totally obliterated if the project is allowed to go ahead, along with the earliest example of British period barrack blocks in Malta.”

The NGOs asked how it could have been possible for the Cold War bunker and other heritage features to have been completely overlooked during the planning application process which was supposed to be thorough and extensive.

In a statement, they said: “We cannot understand how such features have failed to show up on any of the studies presented to the public and supposedly scrutinised by the Planning Authority. It shows that the public has no one to turn to for effective assessment of applications.

“This smacks of a shoddy and negligent approach where everything is fast-tracked and heritage is ignored so that it can more easily be destroyed.

“We are requesting the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage to issue an Emergency Conservation Order on the heritage features on site and to carry out a proper assessment to save what can still be saved.”

Among the NGOs that endorsed yesterday’s statement were: Din l-Art Ħelwa, BirdLife Malta, Friends of the Earth Malta, Moviment Graffitti, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Bicycle Advocacy Group and Żminijietna –Voice of the Left.