The Housing Project Management Unit (HPMU) has filed to renew an application that would see the construction of 56 apartments in Cospicua.
The request is for the renewal of a previously accepted application back in 2012. It consists of the demolition of the existing row of dwellings in Triq Hanover in Cospicua, and the construction of a building block which would include 56 housing units and 120 garages.
The site is located in St Helen's Gate area consisting of a whole block located between four streets, namely Triq l-Irlandizi, Triq Santa Liena, Triq Rikardu Taylor and Triq Hanover; dividing the block in two is Telghat Hanover. The whole block is within the UCA of Bormla. “The Grand Harbour Local Plan identifies the site to be with the housing improvement Action Area which is also designated as an Area of High Landscape Value (AHLV) in view of the Harbour Fortifications,” the 2012 case officer’s report read.
The original application for this project could be dated back to the year 2000, however just last year then Parliamentary Secretary for Social Accommodation Roderick Galdes had visited the site and announced that demolition work was expected to commence. He had said, in 2017, that the project was to be financed through part of the €54 million euro low-interest loan taken out by Government through the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe Bank for Social Development. Galdes had said that €6 million was to be allocated for the project.
Then project architect Daniel Micallef, last year, said that 70% of the land would be developed with the rest being turned into public space. Reports at the time read that this social housing project would regenerate the area in which a number of dilapidated houses are situated.