Cultural heritage features of various degrees of heritage value have been found at Santa Lucija, where works are underway on an underground tunnel, the heritage watchdog said.  

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage (SCH) said the works are abiding by the development permit conditions it imposed as recommended during the consultation period of the planning application.

“Constant archaeological monitoring is being carried out by qualified archaeologists included in the Register of the Superintendence, and under the supervision and direction of the Superintendence, as is the standard procedure for development projects within archaeologically sensitive areas. As normally done, the SCH is in constant discussions with Infrastructure Malta to mitigate impacts of the proposed works on cultural heritage items and thanks the agency for the full cooperation being shown,” it said.

“The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage also points out that the trespassing and pilfering within development sites containing cultural heritage under evaluation or monitoring by the Superintendence constitute a breach of the Cultural Heritage Act as these may damage the remains and jeopardise the investigations and therefore may lead to legal action.”