Developers db Group have refuted allegations that an application for large-scale excavation works at the former ITS site in Pembroke is an effort to circumvent the court ruling that nullified the permit for the controversial City Centre project. 

The company’s plans to start excavations on the site of its massive planned mixed-use development, a month after a court threw out the permit over a conflict of interest on the Planning Authority board, have drawn thousands of objections from the public, NGOs and local councils. 

Objectors accuse the db Group of showing contempt for the court ruling, and of trying to get the project through the planning process by breaking it up into several parts, making it harder for planners and the public to evaluate plans in full.

In a statement on Saturday, db Group slammed these claims, and others surrounding the project, as “falsehoods”. 

“The court did not pronounce itself or raise any concerns against the merits of the permit, the process by which it was issued, the project itself or the db Group. It ruled solely and exclusively against the Planning Authority, without in any way expressing itself on the project, the permit and its processing as breaching any applicable rules,” the company said. 

The developers also insisted that the court decision in no way prevented them from applying for a permit to excavate. 

“Obviously, our new application to excavate was filed in tandem and as part of the reactivation and updating of the original project application. It is not a ‘stand alone’.

"Clearly, the two make sense only when viewed and considered as one. Of equal importance, the extent of the proposed excavation will not change and it has already been the subject to a specific EIA and a traffic impact assessment in PA 3807/17 [the original permit application].”

The City Centre development site after works were halted by a court ruling nullifying a planning permit issued last September. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier.

The company reiterated that its original application had followed all planning processes “openly and in their entirety” and was in line with all relevant policies. 

It said it had already filed a judicial protest against the PA holding it legally and financially responsible for the damages suffered. 

“Our logic is crystal clear: we will not have our rights denied as a consequence of what the court saw as the PA’s shortcomings,” the company said. 

It also dismissed as a falsehood the suggestion that the permit application would have go through the planning process again, insisting the Court of Appeal had not requested a fresh application and that the original application had merely been "reactivated" with “some positive changes we have been working on for months”. 

These changes, it said, included retaining the Grade 2 scheduled former ITS building (planned to be dismantled and rebuilt under the original plans), eliminating excavation under a recently-unearthed Cold War substation, increasing public open space and slightly downsizing the development. 

The group was similarly dismissive of claims that excavating beneath existing buildings would destroy of endanger them, saying there were several examples of such works in historic cities around the world.

"With this logic, no spaces such as car parks could have ever been created under buildings anywhere in the world," it said. 

The €300 million City Centre project - which will include a 37-storey tower, 17-storey hotel hotel and shopping complex at the St George's Bay site - was approved by the PA last September despite an unprecedented wave of opposition from residents and local councils. 

However, the permit was cancelled by a court last month after it ruled that board member Matthew Pace, who voted in favour of the development, had a conflict of interest due to his financial involvement with estate agency Remax, which marketed the project.

Mr Pace resigned from the board this week.