Updated 12.30pm, adds db statement
Newly submitted plans by the db Group did not in any way address the concerns about the huge negative impact on the quality of life and the environment on the former ITS site, three councils and 10 non-governmental organisations said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
They said the revised plans include a slight reduction in the tower height but no significant changes in the massive height and width of the hotel.
Residents’ concerns about being “buried alive” related primarily to this monstrous hotel structure which, due to its height combined with its vast width, would overshadow the locality and throw the thousands of residents living across the road into permanent darkness. “Nothing has changed in this regard,” they said.
They noted there had also been no significant changes in the nature of the project and the activity that it would generate.
With the revised plans, Paceville would still invade Pembroke and Swieqi since the project would generate incessant and overwhelming commercial activity in an area that was designated by the government as a residential one.
Moreover, such activity would create more pressure for similar commercial development in Pembroke and Swieqi in the near future. The project also continued to pose a threat to the two adjacent Natura 2000 sites as well as the Ħarq Ħamiem Cave, both during the construction phase as well as during the operational one.
The db project on the site of the former ITS in Pembroke has attracted widespread opposition and the greatest number of official objections ever recorded.
Five thousand people objected to the first application, and 6,000 objected to the second proposal after the courts revoked the permit to start building.
Group CEO Arthur Gauci said in Times of Malta recently that the group had listened and acted. He said the developable area of the project had been reduced by 50,000sqm, the hotel would have 24 less rooms, the tower height was reduced by seven storeys and all the office space had been removed.
Public areas, he said, were increased by almost 40% and the historic ITS building would not be rehabilitated, refurbished and no excavation will be carried out underneath it.
But the organisations said in their statement that although meetings with the Pembroke council led to revised plans with more proposed open space, among other improvements, as well as a revised excavation plan, the project remained totally out of proportion and out of context, and the people would continue fighting against this threat to their quality of life and the environment, they said.
The public has until June 26 to object to the Planning Authority against the db revised plans.
The organisations said that, in the coming days, they will be filing their objection and informing the public on how they can object to “this monstrous and damaging project”.
The statement was signed by the Pembroke, St Julian’s and Swieqi councils and the Bicycle Advocacy Group, BirdLife, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth, Isles of the Left, Moviment Graffitti, Nature Trust, the Archaeological Society of Malta and Żminijietna - Voice of the Left.
db statement
In an initial reaction, db Group said it was mind-boggling that the Pembroke council endorsed the NGO’s press release criticising the project when late last year it voted 4-1 to sign a memorandum of understanding with the company declaring it was in favour.
One of the four councillors who voted in favour, db said, was none other than the current mayor, Dean Hili.
db said it was therefore incomprehensible that the Pembroke council came out against the project now that all their concerns, bar none, had been addressed and the project was much smaller than when they signed the MoU in favour last year.
It was even more incomprehensible that whoever decided to endorse the press release against the project did so even though the council was scheduled to take a vote on the matter in the next few hours.
The group said it will be responding to all points raised on Thursday.