The Planning Authority has rejected an application to turn a dilapidated townhouse neighbouring Pietà’s historic Villa Frere into a guesthouse.

The authority board said that the proposed design and height of the building would not retain the character of the area and would create an ‘excessive’ impact on the Grade 2 scheduled building.

The decision was a unanimous one taken a few days ago.

The plans included transforming the old townhouse on the Pietà seafront into a guesthouse with garden terraces and restoring the façade and original structure. But the plans were to also add three floors for guestrooms. The applicants were Pietà Estates Limited and architect Alan Galea.

Last year, NGO Friends of Villa Frere had warned that the development would harm three separate protected buildings, calling it “completely disproportionate and incongruous with its highly sensitive surroundings”.

The NGO was established to safeguard the historic villa, which has an extensive landscaped garden and which in 2020 received the highest level of planning protection. 

It highlighted how the proposal would destroy the context of two Grade 1 properties it neighbours – Villa Frere and Giardino Zamittello.

It would also “severely mutilate” a Grade 2 listed property, the High-Baroque villa designed by the capomaestro Antonio Cachia.