This year will not be about giving up. This is the stand being taken by many, among them a group of Kalkara residents who have found themselves fighting for the protection of our national cultural heritage.

A developer is (quite unoriginally) seeking to demolish an existing farmhouse on the periphery of Kalkara’s built area to construct in its place 18 apartments with underlying garages, over seven floors. It should be said that the site does fall within the development zone, however it also forms part of a Class B scheduled site of archaeological value.

The site has two frontages, with one on Triq it-Turretta and the other on Triq Patri Mattew Sultana. Triq it-Turretta that is presently an alley, was meant to be a street that in fact continued onto Triq Patri Mattew Sultana. However, residents have asserted that when the last stretch of Triq it-Turretta was being built in the early 1990s, workers came across a number of carts ruts. Due to the value and prestige of the archaeological discovery, the road works were stopped.

In 2002, the government agency responsible for cultural heritage worked to ensure the safeguarding of these cart ruts by including them in the register of scheduled properties as a Class B site of archaeological value. A buffer zone encircling the cart ruts was also included and itself given Class B scheduling status. Class B sites are described as being ‘very important to be preserved at all costs.’ The Class B designation would entail ‘adequate measures to be taken to preclude any damage from immediate development’.

Approval of the development application in question would lead to the excavation and construction of two subterranean floors plus the construction of five floors above that, all within this Class B designated buffer zone meant to ensure the protection and preservation of the cart ruts.

Of even greater concern is the fact that the construction of the apartments would also mean the recommencement of the construction of the rest of Triq it-Turretta. This would necessitate the excavation and subsequent cutting of rock barely five meters away from the cart ruts.

Approval of the application and the recommencement of the construction of the road, will not only directly threaten these archaeological remains but also lead to the loss of over 2,000sqm of untouched pristine garigue (xagħri) abundant in indigenous flora.

Due to poor legislation concerning the protection of trees, the majestic carob tree falling within the confines of this site that has been gracing this land undisturbed for over a century, will also be erased.

All this is being proposed on land designated as an Area of High Landscape Value of the Harbour Fortifications.

The failure on the part of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage to oppose this development is disquieting. The known documented presence of cart ruts only a few meters away from the site should have been enough to warrant an objection from the government agency entrusted with ensuring the protection and preservation of our national cultural heritage.

Instead, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage chose to effectively give its blessing to the development, basing its ‘no objection’ on the submission of a Works Method Statement put forward by the applicant, meant to illustrate how works would supposedly not damage the archaeological remains.

Protecting the site ‘at all costs’ as necessitated through its Class B scheduling would mean not permitting any form of development that may cause possible damage. There is no way of truly ensuring no damages will be incurred when one is cutting rock just five meters away from these ancient cart ruts that had been carved into the same rock thousands of years ago.

It is absurd to place a prehistoric site at such risk, for the sole gain of yet another apartment block.

The Planning Commission will be deciding on the case this Thursday. Perhaps common sense will prevail, and this site will be spared. On the other hand, if the application is given the go-ahead, it will be up to the residents to once again work together to stop this development and fight for the protection and preservation of our shared national heritage.

Tara Cassar is an architect focusing on planning policies and environmental issues related to land-use, active with a number of local eNGOs.

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