Bank of Valletta has submitted a planning application to demolish its Attard branch and replace it with a five-storey residential complex that will include a bank at ground level.
Through PA7606/23, the bank proposed the demolition of the present one-storey branch abutting Triq il-Mosta and Triq ir-Rand to develop an apartment complex with 10 residential units overlying a basement parking area and a branch at ground floor level.
The application was submitted by the bank’s administration executive Raymond Saliba in August, through architect Glorianne Vassallo Cardona. The PA is accepting objections until February 2. The bank declared it owned the site.
The proposed development is located in an area characterised by old two-storey buildings and directly opposite the Attard primary school and its adjacent public garden.
The garden of the historic Casa De Piro, directly behind the bank’s site, will not be developed.
A number of residents have objected to the proposed development, insisting that the project would ruin the heart of the village core.
Half of the site falls within the village urban conservation area. The two streets flanking the building are very narrow and old, featuring old bridges that connect the buildings on each side of the street.
“Attard, Lija and Balzan are known for their unique picturesque Maltese architecture, narrow streets, beautiful churches, chapels and townhouses. We need to take care of our villages, not trash everything down and replace everything with monstrous concrete buildings,” one objector wrote in an objection to the Planning Authority.
“The area is a very busy one. Adding more residential units will deteriorate it. Any
development in the area should be much more sensitive to its surroundings,” another objector added.
Describing it as a “monstrosity”, residents said the proposed project was close to a number of 18th-century palatial buildings while the rear side of the site abuts a townhouse which was once the residence of Fra Andrew Bertie, grandmaster of the Order of St John.
“The massive building being proposed would have a deleterious effect on the visual integrity of both the garden and the townhouse,” a resident wrote.
The objector berated the bank for lacking a sense of environmental, historic and aesthetic responsibility.
“This application is the very negation of that responsibility. If this project proposal is allowed to proceed, it will be an insult not only to the residents of the village but to all those who so much wish to preserve the architectural context of these islands,” the objector added.
News of BOV’s application to develop the Attard site comes hot on the heels of another application to develop the old HSBC Mellieħa branch and a neighbouring home into a six-storey hotel. The application, also submitted in August, is proposing the demolition of the old HSBC building and an adjacent dwelling, the excavation of the site and the construction of a three-star hotel.
Beside the hotel, the development (PA/07247/23) – along the Mellieħa main road – would also include a basement parking area, a hair salon, a cafeteria and a restaurant.
Tourism minister Clayton Bartolo, a Mellieħa constituent MP, told his Facebook followers he disagreed with the proposed development on Triq Ġorġ Borg Olivier “for several reasons that go beyond our tourism targets”.