Underground parking and garden proposed at The Strand

The parking lot will be located below a landscaped garden which will be dominated by a steel superstructure feature held by steel cables-mimicking a sailing ship - as well as a 20-square-metre kiosk. This will replace the existing parking and landscaped area.

The project will also include two monuments - one for the Sliema's war dead, and one for Sliema football legend Tony Nicholl.

This emerges from plans presented by the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs  to MEPA in November. The application is still being vetted by MEPA.

The application comes in the wake of the loss of 62 parking spaces from the Tigné area after buses had to be re-routed through the MIDI tunnel following the full pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street.

Plans for a €2.3 million land reclamation project announced in February 2006 have also been aborted.

In July, Minister George Pullicino replied that while the Ministry is working on proposals to embellish the Tigné promenade, this project does not contemplate any widening of the existing coast.

Between 2005 and 2007 Transport Malta had presented controversial plans, which contemplated a holistic approach to the partial pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street, the construction of two new roundabouts along The Strand and the redirection of traffic to the Midi tunnel.

But after the 2008 election a more piecemeal approach was taken which saw the full pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street and the opening of the Midi tunnel taking place before works to upgrade the road network at The Strand.