The Planning Authority has been sitting on a request for the protection of the historic officers’ mess in Sliema for at least five years, with the site now at the centre of an application to retain its facade and build a 31-storey tower.
Documents seen by Times of Malta show that the Planning Authority had received the request to schedule the remaining parts of the barracks from the Sliema local council in August 2015.
Heritage architect Edward Said had requested the scheduling of the Victorian Battery, popularly known as Fort Cambridge. “Given the numerous threats, some quite recent, to the site’s historic fabric as well as to its context, we trust that [the PA] will consider this request, also designating a suitable buffer zone, salvaging the remains as well as ensuring appropriate public access to the site,” the PA was told.
The officers’ mess is the only remaining part of the barracks built during the British era in Malta. Its architectural and historical value is also recognised in the Environment Impact Assessment Report prepared over the proposal to turn the site into a high-rise. It is the last free-standing part of the compound which still exists.
Plans for a 31-storey hotel in Sliema at the site of the former Holiday Inn have drawn fierce objections from residents and NGOs due to its impact on the historic Fort Cambridge barracks.
Submitted by GAP Ltd, the project is a scaled-down version of a previous proposal which was 11 metres higher.
Should the Planning Authority grant such a request to schedule the officers’ mess, it would represent a major obstacle for the developer as under the current policy the construction of high-rise hotels on scheduled historical buildings is forbidden.
Under the revised plans, a significant section of the barracks would be destroyed while the facade would be incorporated in the tower.
The council sent several reminders over the years, with the latest one sent last year.
“In view of the fact that Sliema has lost the greater part – if not all – of its British military architectural heritage, we beseech you to consider urgent scheduling of this building and to propose the same to the Planning Authority Executive Council in line with relevant legislation,” the council’s lawyer, Claire Bonello, said in yet another reminder about the request.
A spokesman for the PA confirmed when contacted that the request to schedule the historic building is still pending.
The PA’s Fort Cambridge development brief, which was approved in 2006, describes the barracks as a “landmark building” and makes a case for its protection.