Updated 5.40pm

A controversial 4,000 square metre, 109-unit apartment block in Mellieħa green lung was given the go-ahead by the Planning Authority on Wednesday.

In a sitting held on Wednesday morning, the three-person PA board dismissed concerns raised by residents and the Mellieħa local council about the project’s massing and impact on the community’s quality of life, finding that the project was “in line with planning parameters”.

The board unanimously approved the application, with chairperson Stephania Baldacchino and members Mireille Fsadni and Anthony Camilleri all voting in favour.

Mellieħa mayor Gabriel Micallef later slammed ministers hailing from the locality's electoral district for their silence over the proposal.

The PA’s decision on Wednesday brings the bitter dispute between residents and authorities over the plans for the plot to an end.

Last month, residents and NGO group Il-Kollettiv took to the streets to demand plans be scrapped, describing it as a “concrete trophy” and saying that the project would rob them of a rare urban green space. 

Both Mellieħa mayor Gabriel Micallef and deputy mayor Matthew Borg Cuschieri backed the residents’ protest.

But developers T&S Property Holdings pushed on with plans to build 23 residential units on each of its ground, first, second and third floors, for a total of 92 apartments, together with 17 penthouses and 171 basement garages.

One of the blocks that will be built on the plot. Image: Planning Authority

The company insisted that the area had been designated for development since 1965, with the 2006 local plans also marking the area as available for development.

T&S Holdings are a familiar face in the construction industry, headed by Paul Attard, director of GAP Property and Paul Vella, who leads Ballut Blocks.

A controversial project from the start

The project first caught public attention in 2023, when the government sold the plot of land, with an estimated market value of over €12m, to the developers on a 50-year perpetual revisable emphyteusis against an annual payment of €380,000.

The deal stipulated that the winning bidder could redeem the emphyteusis within the first 15 years after a revision according to the rate of inflation

Despite being outbid in the tender process, T&S emerged with the land’s title thanks to a right of first refusal they held because they owned an adjacent piece of land. This allowed them to match the highest bid and take over the entire plot.

Shortly afterwards, residents filed a parliamentary petition urging the Lands Authority to reverse its decision to give the land away, with PN MPs Robert Cutajar and Ivan Castillo, as well as then-PL MEP Cyrus Engerer backing residents’ calls.

Then-local councillor Gabriel Micallef, today the town’s mayor, had taken matters a step further, calling on the ombudsman to investigate the deal.

On Wednesday Micallef took to Facebook to express his frustration at what he described as the “ease” with which the PA board approved the proposal, despite “the negative impact this development will bring”.

“At a time when we yearn for more public spaces, the Planning Authority has approved this development, hidden in plain sight within the outdated 2006 Local Plan, as though it were of no consequence.”

Pledging not to give up, Micallef slammed ministers hailing from Mellieħa’s electoral district for their silence over the proposal, describing it as “a betrayal of the community they are supposed to represent”. 

Tourism minister Clayton Bartolo was elected from Mellieħa’s electoral district, while justice minister Jonathan Attard also stood as a candidate in the district.