Fort St Angelo vaults to be restored

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has given the go-ahead for the restoration of the vaults beneath Fort St Angelo in Vittoriosa.

The Cottonera Waterfront Group, which has already restored the nearby Caraffa stores and built the adjacent apartments, received unanimous approval from the Mepa board yesterday to turn the vaults into multi-purpose halls for exhibitions and conferences.

There are also plans to use sections as wine cellars, a bistro and a chandlery supplying yachts berthed at Vittoriosa.

Besides the vaults, which open into a creek between the fort and the newly built flats, the planning application includes the cleaning out of a complex of rock-hewn tunnels.

Speaking on behalf of the applicants at yesterday's public hearing, architect Michael Ellul said the main hall of the vaults, overlooking Dockyard Creek, had been rebuilt in the 1970s and a number of windows had been opened.

The windows will remain there even though such fortifications never have windows.

A vault on the Vittoriosa side that had been used as a discotheque in the 1980s had been damaged by fire, as were sections of the rock-cut tunnels.

Concrete that had been applied in the past to hold parts of the vaults together will be removed and proper restoration methods employed, Mr Ellul said.

One problematic point in the application was the sea gate of the vaults, which has deteriorated a lot because of the sea spray. The architect said the gate is so eroded it would have to be left untouched or otherwise be completely replaced.

In this case, there was no agreement on what intervention should be carried out so the applicants told the board they would rather leave the sea gate out of this application. In this way, the vaults' restoration plan would not be held up further.

The Mepa board approved an application to build a sea wall also submitted by the Cottonera Waterfront Group. But the discussion on this issue was rather heated.

The applicants said a wall was necessary beneath the flats on the Kalkara side, as a 10-metre stretch of rock separating the sea from the buildings had been eroded. During strong southeast winds, sea spray was reaching the second floor of the apartment block, the architect said.

Mr Ellul said the wall would be made of a concrete mould with a limestone colour and texture. It would be shaped in a similar way to the rocks and would therefore not be an eyesore.

The application provides for a pedestrian passage behind the wall. The architect said the overall plans provide for a public walking path around St Angelo, so the sea wall would provide the missing link.

It was at this point that a board member of the Mepa directorate objected to the application because he said the authority was receiving complaints that landscaping works on the roof of the flats "had not started".

The applicants objected that the sea wall application had nothing to do with the roof of the flats, adding that the consortium had paid a bank guarantee promising to finish the landscaping on time.

Moreover, landscaping works had indeed started and would be ready in a month's time, the architect replied, inviting Mepa to send an inspector to monitor the works.