The Planning Authority has filed an application to excavate inside a Grade 1 scheduled bastion, in order to create an opening for what seems to be a planned staircase from one of its office buildings to a car park below.

Grade 1 property enjoys the maximum level of protection. Currently, one needs to walk just a little further down the main PA entrance ramp and down the road to reach the car park in question from the main PA office area.

The full planning application is for the demolition of existing enforcement block offices, retaining the external façade and loggia. It also includes the “reconstruction of ground and first floor offices and the construction of receded second floor offices”. The proposal continues “the incision and excavation within bastion to accommodate access to appeals car park.” The site is the PA offices at St Francis Ravelin in Floriana.

The application was filed on 2 April 2018 by Kevin Portelli, who was promoted to the position of Director with the PA just days ago.

This newsroom asked the Planning Authority a number of questions, including a request for clarification and to state exactly what kind of intervention into the bastion the PA is proposing.

In response a PA official said: “Further to your query kindly note that the proposal in the planning application was only submitted after the Planning Authority, which in this case is the applicant, consulted the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage.”

Questions were also sent to the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage for its opinion on this proposal, however no answer had been received by the time this article went to print.

The public application form does not list it as a scheduled site, but does list it as being Outside Development Zone. However, the Planning Authority’s geoserver, as well as the corresponding maps show otherwise: that the bastion is a Grade 1 protected military bastion. Due to this situation, one of the questions asked by this newsroom to the PA sought clarification as per the scheduling of the bastion, however no response to that question was given, and thus this newsroom took that to mean that the PA’s geoserver and maps are correct and up-to-date, meaning that the bastion in question is indeed Grade 1 scheduled.

A heritage expert speaking with this newsroom was appalled at the wanton disregard for invaluable historical sites such as these Grade 1 bastions: “The fact that it is the PA itself which wants to hack out a large part of it displays reckless disregard for our heritage.”

One objection letter has already been filed by Flimkien Ghal Ambjent which states: “The application includes an incision into the bastion to form a staircase and doorway to car park. The bastion is a Grade 1 Scheduled Building and if approved, this will be a precedent to grant permission to anyone to start hacking away at the bastions and to hollow them out from within to provide means of access and/or commercial facilities.

“The integrity of Grade 1 Scheduled buildings must be respected fully and not impinged upon by interventions which damage and distort the physical and material fabric of these historical gems.”

Photos Alenka Falzon