A planning application seeks to turn a disused fireworks factory outside the development zone in Dingli into tourist accommodation.

The proposed development lays plans for an expansive complex on a site of about 6,275sqm. The complex is split into 14 bungalows, each with its own swimming pool, as well as a management block and ancillary facilities, including a cesspit.

The former Pulvich fireworks factory is located in an area known as il-Qaws and is a designated Natura 2000 site in bet-ween L-Irdum ta’ l-Iħfar and Ix-Xagħra tal-Qaws.

The site is also adjacent to another two Natura 2000 sites and falls within a scheduled Area of Ecological Importance as well as an Area of High Landscape Value.

Since being licensed as a fireworks factory in 1987, applications have been submitted to build a store within the site in 1994, redevelop it into educational agricultural and residential use in 1997 and into a fireworks factory depot in 2009.

All applications were refused.

In 2017, an application was submitted to redevelop the site into an “eco-spa and resort” but this was later withdrawn.

In 2020 a new application sought to turn the site over for residential use, including the construction of a swimming pool.

Drawings significantly slimmed down

The Environment Resources Authority objected to the latter two applications, citing the extensive development to a rural area the proposal would have brought to the area.

However, in its comments on the latest request for development, the ERA noted that the drawings had significantly slimmed down the development massing and it recommended that all areas should be limited to one storey in elevation.

“ERA acknowledges that the choice of location of particular hazardous developments such as explosives factories may often be constrained by safety considerations and may thus need to be located away from residential areas.

“ERA does not support the principle that such development should serve as a pretext for committing sites for further development, however it notes the current built commitments on site,” the authority wrote in its submissions.

The ERA had expressed overall objection to the eco-spa and resort, “also considering the extensive intensification of development that would have been introduced by these proposals”.

It said that compared to previous applications, the proposed new development has been downsized and was “generally contained within the existing massing”.

ERA recommended consolidation of the built-up areas towards the central part of the site, more space to be allowed on the fringes for soft landscaping, strict limitation to one storey and that there should not be any basements built.

The application is being proposed by Sunroute Hotels Ltd, numbered PA/05257/20.

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