Hotelier wants to demolish old Attard building

The owners of a new boutique hotel in Attard approved last year on the grounds of the protected Casa Bonavita townhouse, have applied to demolish an old farmhouse on an adjacent site on Triq il-Belt Valletta in Attard.

The old farm building is located in the Urban Conservation Area where demolitions of old buildings are not normally allowed.

If the application is approved the dilapidated building, characterised by its old walls and partly covered by shrubs, will be replaced by a two-storey annexe to the boutique hotel by opening up of doorway in a garden wall separating the two properties.

The hotel, approved in 2019, had included additional rooms in the garden of the townhouse, which is also protected as an open space enclave. The PA considered the works as “an extension to an existing building aimed at increasing the amenity of the property”.

An expired permit from 1995 and last renewed in 1998 to replace the farmhouse with a terraced house, now lacks legal validity as permits expire after five years. The PA had back then approved the demolition of what was considered an “existing dangerous structure” to construct the terraced house. The demolition was also given the blessing of the PA’s internal heritage panel, which in 1995 found no objection and deemed the proposal “acceptable from an aesthetic point of view and one which would enhance the overall appearance of the area”.