A 5 star hotel that was planned to be built on the site of the old Tattingers club in Victoria has had its permit revoked by an appeal court for not complying with local plans.

This development permit was controversial from the beginning as it is located at the foot of the Mdina ramparts, one of the best examples of an ancient walled city in Europe.

There were several objections for aesthetic but also structural reasons, since the hotel required some 1,000 square meters of excavation.

Despite this, the Planning Authority had approved the permit in 2021, and said that archaeological and geological studies must be carried out before any excavation work on the site.

The case was referred to the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal, which agreed that the permit should be revoked and sent back to the Planning Authority as the application should not have been issued until the -studies – rather than becoming conditional on these. result.

However, Din l’Art Hëlwa, the Archaeological Society of Malta and the Graffitti Movement were not appealed against this decision and went to the Court of Appeal, with the argument that the Local Plan of the area was allows extensions to operate hotels under certain conditions, new hotels were not foreseen. .

The Court of Appeal has now agreed that since the Local Plan did not allow new hotels, the law must be maintained and the permit revoked.

This Sweet Land welcomed the important decision: “The implications go far beyond the development of Tattingers, since the Court of Appeal recognized the main importance of Local Plans, which can now be used as an argument strong for several others. cases.”

The President of DLĥ Alex Torpiano said that this is a very important sentence that has wide implications on a number of other applications that are already being prepared and will certainly serve as a deterrent for those that are still being considered.

It was encouraging to feel vindicated after all the effort made by the many volunteers.

“Despite the sterling work done on a pro-bono basis by all our dedicated volunteers, these fights cost a lot of money and would not be possible without your continued membership and donations. We encourage you to visit our website join if you haven’t already.”

This year, the DLĥ submitted more than 1,500 objections to individual planning applications.

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