Maligned townhouse room gets permit for receded washroom

The MEPA Board unanimously voted to modify a planning permit, issued in October 2010, for the construction of a room on top of an old Sliema townhouse which also included internal alterations.

Following this decision the applicant will need to demolish the existing room and can only construct a stairwell/washroom receded from both Rudolph and Alphonse street. 

Following inspections carried out by MEPA’s Enforcement Directorate earlier this year it resulted that the width of the two streets, as declared by architect, varied from the actual width, which was narrower.

“Given that the declared width had a bearing on the planning decision, the Planning Directorate initiated procedures for the invocation of Article 77 of the Environment Development Planning Act, resulting in the original permit being modified,” MEPA said.

The MEPA Board also granted planning permission for the demolition and reconstruction of a new hotel at a site located within the development zone of Qawra. The new hotel which will have a building height of four floors is presently occupied by an existing aparthotel which has a height varying between one and three floors. 

The Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) depot, which for years has been situated in the immediate vicinity of a residential area known as il-Qajjenza, in the northern periphery of Birzebbuga, is to be fully decommissioned after the MEPA Board gave its planning consent. The decommissioning project involves the removal of all residual traces of LPG therefore rendering the network and storage vessels gas free as well as the dismantling of the LPG pipe network, the LPG storage vessels and carting away of the resulting scrap metal in an approved manner.