Pembroke council agrees not to oppose db group expansion plan for €3 million
The money will be spent on a clinic, childcare centre, residents' underground car park and other local projects
Updated 7pm
Pembroke’s local council has agreed not to object to db Group’s plan to add more floors to its mega-development at St George’s Bay, in return for €3 million, which will be spent on local projects.
During a council meeting on Wednesday, all members unanimously voted in favour of signing this agreement.
The €3 million would go towards a new building that will have a library, a childcare centre, a multipurpose hall, and a clinic. It will also help fund an underground car park for residents on Triq Pietru D’Armenia, which will have a park covering around 2,000 square metres on top.
“The council is proposing to approve this contract, on the basis that it does not object to the permit and application,” mayor Kaylon Zammit said during the meeting.
db Group already has a permit to build two 17- and 18-storey towers. However, last month, the company filed a fresh application to add extra floors and turn these towers into 23 and 25 floors, respectively.
Since db Group filed its latest plans, Zammit said that the council has held numerous meetings with the company to ensure that “residents are compensated for this inconvenience”.
“We want to ensure that all decisions taken by this local council are in the best interests of our residents,” Zammit said.
The mayor admitted that the last thing he wanted to do was end up in a legal battle with db Group, “where there is a large chance that the local council will lose”.
The previous local council, under former mayor Dean Hili, and alongside Moviment Graffiti, appealed to the Planning Authority’s decision to grant db Group a permit and also continued that fight in court.
Zammit said that this decision "in no way is meant to criticise the previous council’s decision to object to the project" adding that at the time "it made sense and was just".
“The reality is that the situation is no longer the same, circumstances have changed. Today, we have a project that has been approved,” he said.
Zammit praised db Group for always showing an interest in giving back to the community.
In a social media post, Pembroke resident and Moviment Graffiti member, Rafel Grima said the council had “betrayed” them.
“If this is not whitewashing, then what is? Why should we accept a private company that built a monstrous project in our locality?” he asked.
Momentum’s Arnold Cassola also questioned whether a €3 million project is enough to compensate the “havoc that DB are wreaking in the St George's Bay area”, calling it "barefaced transaction to buy the local council's silence".
"In modern democracies this is called trading in influence and would be illegal," he commented in a social media post.
Questions have been sent to db Group.