The Planning Authority board today approved a new extension for the Ramla Bay Hotel at Marfa which looks like a beached cruise liner.

The hotel was built in the 1960s and catered for timeshare, a business model that today has passed its sell-by date.

The plan is to pull down the timeshare part of the hotel, that nearest the sea, and create instead a new extension. Instead of the 45 apartments that will be pulled down, 100 new apartments will be built.

Architect Paul Borg explained that the old apartments faced the countryside on one side and the sea on the other. The new ones have been planned to maximise on the sea views, hence the resemblance to a cruise liner on the sand, although the building is bent towards the middle.

Enforcement officers who recently visited the site found that illegal excavation had been carried out and also some construction.

Architect Borg, asked to explain, blamed PA bureaucracy where a lot of time is wasted especially in waiting for replies by such bodies as KNPD. An application has been submitted to sanction the illegalities but meanwhile the applicant will be fined.

CEO Johann Buttigieg pointed out that a recent Mepa circular had explained what is to be done in such circumstances. The applicant could have avoided the fine.

Some board members pointed out to the irregular parking area outside the hotel, which is actually government land used as a parking. It has been like that since the 1960s, some said, but the board agreed not to increase the fine, as long as the applicant gets a lease from the Lands Department and reorganizes the parking space.

A board member pointed out at a reflecting pool that will surround the development and expressed anxiety that someone might mistake the pool for the sea and jump into it from the restaurant, a storey up, when the reflecting pool is only six inches deep. However, the other members did not insist on tackling this problem, so it was dropped.

Another board member insisted on better protection of the environment, not just the Posidonia Meadows out at sea but also the remaining garigue, which, she said, will be affected by the shadow caused by the new extension. This board member was the only one to oppose the application.