Qormi police station is the actual armoury, and not the crumbling building pointed out by the NGOs Fondazzjoni ghal-Ambjent Ahjar and Fondazzjoni Ulied Hal Qormi in a press conference held last Saturday, a spokesperson for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority said.

The two NGOs called for investigation into the development of a block of flats that they said replaced the garden of a 17th century armoury in Main Street, Qormi, but the actual original armoury is the town house a few metres up the road which is currently used as a Police Station.

Following reports made at the weekend the Mepa spokesperson pointed out that the building shown by the NGOs is currently being converted into a house of character with a central courtyard by the developers according to applications submitted to Mepa.

The spokesperson said that the actual armoury was included in the inventory of cultural heritage commissioned by Mepa in 1993 soon after the authority came into being.

On the allegations made by FAA that Qormi does not have a single protected enclave, the spokesperson said that this is not true as there are a number of protected private gardens in the San Gorg area.

As for the passageways that run under the area he said that it is difficult to state if these date back to the Knights period or whether they are just war shelters but he gave an assurance that they will be protected if they are of historical value.

The procedures to develop the area in question started in 2004 when two applications were submitted separately. They were eventually joined into one application in 2006 and Mepa issued instructions to conserve the character building in 2007.

The spokesperson added that ideally people express their concerns before the damage is done, not when it is too late. He said that the apartments were built over a number of years, not overnight and residents had the opportunity to appeal Mepa’s decision before the development started.