A group of leading architects, art historians and heritage conservationists are urging the government to stop the building of a residential block in Victoria which would overshadow the protected Ta’ Fortun Windmill.

The group includes the executive president of Din l-Art Ħelwa, architect Alex Torpiano, and eminent art historians Mario Buhagiar and Keith Sciberras.

In an e-mail to the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, planning minister Aaron Farrugia and national heritage minister José Herrera, they said: “We, the undersigned students and practitioners of Maltese architectural heritage, call upon your offices to urgently intervene, investigate and stop the proposed development which will see the destruction of the context of Ta’ Fortun windmill at Għajn Qatet, Rabat, Gozo, which is a Grade 1 historic monument and one of the locality’s most prominent landmarks.”

The site next to the windmill is being prepared for a five-storey development.

The group urged an immediate conservation order that creates at least a 100-metre buffer zone around Grade One listed buildings of cultural heritage and importance.

A spokesperson for the collective said the current policies covering Grade One listing need to be reassessed to ensure that the protection status is respected.

They also propose that construction next to such sites must be no higher than two floors and use recycled globigerina limestone as the building material or as the outer skin of the structure.

“The situation is critical. We are not at the 11th hour, we are at the 13th. Something has to be done,” they stressed.

Both ministers have responded to the e-mail saying the issue would be investigated.

The plea to the government follows a report in Times of Malta about the planned construction of a 17.5 metre residential block next to the Ta’ Fortun windmill and a completed apartment block which has overshadowed the Ta’ Marżiena windmill, also in Victoria.

Sciberras had protested that the residential block next to the Ta’ Marżiena windmill is out of context with the area and “culturally insensitive”.

The e-mail was also signed by Joan Abela, Mark Sagona, Edward Said, Joanna Spiteri Staines, Ruben Abela, Giovanni Zammit (Wirt Għawdex) and Daniel Cilia.