DB Group accuses Nationalist MP of lying about ITS site excavation works

The DB Group has accused Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi of lying when he claimed that changes to the proposed City Centre project on the former ITS site have been amended to increase in the number of underground floors and to justify land reclamation by the government. 

“This is an outright lie. The City Centre project did not, does not, and will not contemplate land reclamation,” the company said in a statement.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Azzopardi made reference to an application submitted by the DB Group for the excavation of the former ITS site, on which it plans to develop a hotel and residential complex.

The post, which was accompanied by a communication by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), which states that the present application will generate 40,000 cubic metres of additional construction waste, when compared to the excavation works envisaged in the original permit.

“The latest application for the excavation in the DB’s Pembroke project, I found there will be a 40,000 cubic metre increase in excavation waste. This is shocking,” Azzopardi wrote.

The “enormous” increase, he said, meant that “government will now say that it has no choice but to embark on land reclamation in order to dispose of all that waste”.

He questioned how ERA chairman Victor Axiaq - whose resignation was recently called for by the PN over him voting in favour of the Central Link Project – how he could justify not objecting to the application.

“Do you know that all this excavation, with a huge cave (Ghar Har Hammiem) beneath can endanger the stability of government flats in the vicinity. Did you ask where all that material would be disposed of?”

In response to Azzopardi’s claims, the DB group said that the increase in construction waste was a result of alterations made to the previous plans, which are intended to portect and retain “cultural and historical heritage” in the area.

“Considerable design chances were carried out for various reasons. We wanted to stay true to our commitment to retain the whole scheduled military barracks in place. We had no obligation to do so because we had clearance from the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage to redevelop the existing Grade 2 military blocks and retaining an amalgamating the south portico façade. Yet, we have gone a step further and proposed to retain the military block in their totality, including the cold war substation and its underlying tock base, as well as other underground structures and reservoir,” the DB Group Group said in a statement.

It said that as a result of “these initiatives”, taken in the interest of “protecting [the country’s] cultural and historical heritage”, the main podium level where the former ITS portico stood had been lowered by over six metres “in order to retain the military blocks as they were while also respecting their existing finished floor levels”.

“By doing so, a considerable volume of development has been eliminated from the previous scheme and subsequently the project amenities, including parking facilities had to be shifted downwards.”

It noted that the change had already been given full clearance by ERA.

“In other words, not only is Jason Azzopardi lying that our Group will be excavating for the purposes of land reclamation, he’s lying even more about the intent of the excavation. Contrary to what he suggests, it is being done to serve the preservation of our cultural and historical heritage, and not to harm it.”

The group said that such lies were “unbecoming and harmful to a balanced and fact-based national debate on what will, at €300 million, be the largest private investment by a single investor in the history of this country”.

“When such lies are perpetrated by an honourable member of parliament, their insidiousness, dangerous and anti-democratic nature gains even more weight,” concluded the statement.  

The permit for the project was struck down by the Courts back in June, which ruled that Planning Authority board member Matthew Pace had a conflict of interest because of his involvement in a REMAX real estate franchise with an interest in selling property units at City Centre.

The DB Group had subsequently said it would be re-activating the permit and in the meantime submitted an application limited to the excavation of the site in the meantime.

Residents, NGOs and local councils have all condemned the ‘splicing and dicing’ of the permit, which they claim is being done to avoid a holistic evaluation of the full impacts of the development.

Last week, NGOs, residents and local councils said that over 6,000 objections had been submitted to the latest application, a claim which was described as a lie by the DB Group. The number of objections to the project on the Planning Authority website is currently just over 3,700.