Sliema residents vent frustration at developers riding roughshod

Residents are concerned that developers could be exploiting an MTA policy allowing hotel to add extra floors in order to add additional floors to flats

Residents vented their frustration at the way developers are being allowed to ride roughshod over residents’ rights in Sliema at a press conference held yesterday morning on Howard Street, Sliema.

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar coordinator Astrid Vella opened by saying that an application for an 11-storey hotel should be turned down as it failed to respect the North Harbour Local Plan, which stipulates that hotels are to be restricted to Sliema‘s commercial town centre and are not permitted in residential areas.

The proposed hotel in the narrow Howard Street will cause significantly affect residents in terms of disturbance and traffic. Transport Malta itself has expressed serious reservations about the lack of space provided for suppliers’ trucks, coaches and vans. While the requirement of a 27-car garage is already considered insufficient for an 83-bedroom hotel, plans for the hotel fall far shorter by providing only 15 spaces. Moreover, residents will be deprived of up to 12 parking bays to accommodate increased traffic.

Vella pointed out that since the Planning Authority had allowed the demolition of Sliema’s largest hotel, The Fortina, built on a site granted exclusively for touristic purposes, it should not be allowing new hotels in residential areas where they are not allowed. Residents are also concerned that developers could be exploiting an MTA policy allowing hotel to add extra floors in order to add additional floors to flats. This policy stipulates that not only must the development respect residential amenities, it only applies to “highquality” hotels. Vella questioned whether a hotel could be considered high quality 10 out of 12 bedrooms faced a “shaft”.

Paul Radmilli, of the Sliema Local Council, added that the proposed hotel would be hemmed in by residential buildings on all sides, and that the resultant blank party walls were not permissible under the MTA policy. The architect’s attempt to add fake windows did not make the proposed plans any more acceptable.

He accused the Planning Authority of using a loophole in the Flexibility Policy to grant unacceptable permits. “This application does not merit such a departure from the local plan, since under the MTA policy for additional hotel floors, the development must be neighbour-compatible, have no unacceptable cumulative adverse impacts on the locality, and be justified from a planning perspective, Radmilli said, noting that the applicant had not satisfied any of the three provisos.

The speakers concluded by saying that the proposed development would have a cumulative effect on Sliema’s already congested streets, creating an urban canyon which trapped air pollution, contributing to asthma, heart problems, stroke and cancer. “If this permit is accepted, it will create a precedent for other hotels to be permitted all around Sliema’s residential areas, reducing even further the quality of life in this town.”