The Fgura local council has turned to the courts in a last-ditch attempt to block the demolition of a historic 200-year old farmhouse while a request for its scheduling is pending.

The court provisionally accepted the request for a mandate of prohibitory injunction against the demolition, with a hearing to take place later this month, the council said on Saturday.

The farmhouse in Triq Hompesch is the last remaining link to the Ficura family, which gave the locality its name, but was stripped of its basic protection status 18 months after a planning tribunal ruled that it did not have any significance to the town's identity. 

The Environmental Planning Review Tribunal in October confirmed the Planning Authority's decision to grant permission for demolition.

In a statement on Saturday, the local council said it had asked the court not to allow any demolition while a decision on reinstating the farmhouse's protection status, following a request submitted on October 2, was pending. 

"The work that has been carried out in recent years confirms the council's commitment to protect this farmhouse from total destruction," it said. 

"If it were allowed to go ahead, Fgura, its residents and all those who hold the locality to heart would have lost an important and unique part of its history.

"This farmhouse was once the centre of the locality and played an important role in the formation of its history and identity."

The farmhouse was granted Grade 3 scheduling by the Planning Authority in 1995 and consists of several vernacular features, including stone slabs and corbels. 

These were the basis on which attempts to have the building de-scheduled in 2009, 2011 and 2015 were refused.