Updated 5.15pm

The Planning Authority has called on an international school to revise and reduce its plans to build an extension on the grounds of the scheduled former Mtarfa military hospital.

Heritage NGO Din l-Art Ħelwa earlier expressed concern about the plans drawn up by Haileybury Malta Ltd, which was granted a 40-year concession in 2019 to rehabilitate the hospital for use as a school to cater mostly for children of expats living and working in Malta.

At the time, the education ministry said that Haileybury, which already operates similar schools in Kazakhstan and the UK, would be investing more than €15 million in the rehabilitation of the former hospital.

The school was originally due to start its operations in September 2021.

Mtarfa Hospital was opened in 1920 and remained in use until the early 1970s. 

The company is seeking a permit to construct an extension to the existing building consisting of two floors housing a sports hall with a gym, canteen, kitchen, stores and ancillary facilities.

In November 2021, the company was granted a permit to restore and rehabilitate the old three-storey building for use as a kindergarten, junior school and senior school, a sixth form centre, music rooms, library, media centre, theatre, drama room, dance studio and administrative offices.

The company is now also seeking a permit to make a number of internal alterations, the construction of a new lift and extension to the roof of one of the existing staircases, as well as redesign soft landscape areas.

DLĦ said in its objection that the visuals provided by the applicant showed a change in the skyline and the general formation of the scheduled building as seen across long and short-distance views.

“Such drastic alterations are deemed completely unacceptable and fail to adhere to policies regulating what interventions may be considered on such a heritage building. The proposal runs counter to provisions for Grade 2 listed buildings,” the group said.

Grade 2 scheduled buildings are usually of architectural or historical interest or contribute to the visual image of an urban conservation area (UCA). According to planning policies, permission to demolish such buildings is not normally allowed while alterations to the interior will be allowed if proposed to be carried out sensitively and causing the least detriment to the character and architectural homogeneity of the building. 

The PA in a statement said its board considered that the proposed extension needed to be reduced so that it could integrate with the protected structure.

It recalled the November 2021 permit for the restoration and rehabilitation of the main building for use as a modern school and said that the new proposed facilities were originally meant to go underground. But investigations showed up archaeological characteristics that made that impossible.

The PA board also asked the school to come up with a plan to reduce the carbon footprint from the operations of the school.

 

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