NGO says PA mulling sanctioning illegal Valletta rooftop additions

Din l-Art Ħelwa has again expressed its concern and alarm regarding the unauthorised rooftop additions on two historic houses in Merchant Street, Valletta, which first came to public attention in November 2016.

It said the unauthorised works are now being considered for sanctioning. “In one case, the historic house at no. 176, Merchant Street, recently converted into the St John boutique hotel, the rooftop floor that has been built is twice the extent allowed in the planning permit. This house is already the highest along this part of Merchant Street, and therefore the unauthorised rooftop additions are not permissible or sanctionable according to the Planning Authority’s present planning policies and guidance.”

DLH said despite this, and despite the various objections that have been raised by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, NGOs, the Valletta Local Council and members of the public, the case officer report has recommended that the permission for sanctioning be granted. The Planning Commission hearing of this case is due on 4 October.

DLH appealed to the PA to scrutinise this case with urgency, and to investigate how a recommendation to grant permission could be made, when it is contradictory to the current Planning Policy framework, particularly the Development Control Design Policy, Guidance and Standards 2015 (DC15).

“If the unauthorised works were to be sanctioned and therefore allowed to remain, they would become a permanent scar on an important part of Valletta’s roofscape, in the very heart of the city and in the immediate vicinity of some of its most important public monuments,” it warned.

If these abusively built structures are granted permission, the PA would be giving the worst possible message, by rewarding and therefore encouraging flagrant abuse and illegalities, it said.

It would also create a very harmful precedent for similar additions in the same block. A few doors away in the same block, at no. 167 Merchant Street, there is already another flagrant case of an entire new floor that was built on top of the historic palace known as Casa Roselli Massa, without a permit, which is now also being considered for sanctioning.

If the unauthorised works were to be allowed to remain, they would become a permanent scar.