Developers db Group have categorically denied claims by a Nationalist Party MP that they will be excavating an additional 40,000 cubic metres at their City Centre project to use the material for land reclamation at St Georges Bay.
PN MP Jason Azzopardi had made the claim in a social media post.
In a statement issued on Monday, db Group CEO Arthur Gauci said the additional excavation was part of a plan to retain the military blocks previously housing the Institute for Tourism Studies “in their totality”.
He described Dr Azzopardi’s claim as an “outright lie”, saying that the City Centre project “did not, does not and will not contemplate land reclamation”.
The controversy erupted last Saturday, when the PN MP uploaded a post on his Facebook account and expressed “shock” at a decision by the Environment and Resources Authority regarding the controversial project.
Quoting from a document published by the environmental regulator, Dr Azzopardi said that the revised plans would result in an additional 40,000 cubic metres of excavated waste. Moreover, he claimed that this would be used as a pretext for the government to announce land reclamation in the area.
"An extraordinary increase," he wrote.
db denies excavation claim
DB Group has however said that the increase in excavation is due to revised plans to retain the entire military building, rather than redeveloping the existing Grade 2 scheduled building and retaining and amalgamating the south portico façade.
“We have gone a step further and proposed to retain the military blocks in their totality, including the cold war substation and its underlying rock base as well as other underground structures and reservoirs,” Mr Gauci said.
Consequently, the main podium level where the former ITS portico stood has been lowered by over six metres in order to retain the military blocks as they were and thereby also respecting their exiting finished floor levels, he added.
The group said that this revision resulted in less development than the original, while certain amenities such as parking facilities had to be shifted downwards.
Mr Gauci accused the Opposition MP not only of lying on the intent of the excavation but also on the issue of land reclamation.
“When such lies are perpetrated by an honourable member of parliament, their insidiousness, dangerous and anti-democratic nature gains even more weight,” the DB Group CEO said.
Residents of Pembroke, St Julian's and Swieqi have vociferously opposed the DB Group's plans to develop the former ITS site in St George's Bay.
Although the Planning Authority gave the project the green light earlier this year, developers were sent back to the drawing board some months ago after a court found that one of the board members who approved the project, Matthew Pace, should have recused himself due to a conflict of interest.
The court declared the permit "null and void" and the developers have had to "reactivate" the permit application.