Balluta rooftop restaurant finds no favour with heritage watchdog

Developer Carlo Stivala is seeking planning permits for a light-weight structure for a rooftop area for chairs and tables on top of the Balluta Bay building that formerly house the Piccolo Padre restaurant, a Grade 2 listed building.

The proposal for the rooftop seating area as well as a retractable canopy on the third floor, are being objected to by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, which expressed concern on allowing more illegal works in the same building.

The application is to sanction a number of works carried out without a permit, following other illegal works in November that had been regularised at a later stage. Stivala also wants to change the use of a residential unit to two restaurants and the addition of “new balconies”.

The SCH expressed concern “at unauthorised works within a scheduled property”, noting that upon inspection  the third level had already been constructed beyond what was allowed in previous permits. It said the rooftop catering area would create the need for umbrellas and related paraphernalia which would have a negative impact on the property.

Plans also propose extended balconies on the seaward side at second and third levels, which the Superintendence considers to be “a drastic alteration to the façade of a scheduled building”.

In November 2022, the Planning Authority sanctioned alterations to the facade, including the dismantling of a wrought-iron railing, with the the re-installation of a replica of the original timber balconies and apertures which had been previously removed without a permit. The illegal works had been stopped by the Planning Authority in January 2022 after being flagged by former St Julian’s mayor Albert Buttigieg on New Year’s Day.