Controversial plans for a boutique hotel at the top of Saqqajja Hill, Rabat, may be a non-starter, planning minister Ian Borg told Parliament on Tuesday.

The proposal to convert two Victorian townhouses into a four-storey guesthouse, adding two floors to the existing buildings and building an extension in the garden, have met with widespread opposition from residents, heritage groups and the Rabat local council.

Answering a question from Labour MP Silvio Grixti, Dr Borg said that while the proposal was still under assessment, it appeared that the additional floors would have a negative impact on the historic building and the designated Area of High Landscape Value which Saqqajja forms part of.

He said it was therefore clear even that the project could not make use of the Height Limitation Adjustment Policy, which allows hotels two floors over and above the area’s height limitation.

Additional floors would have a negative impact on the historic building and designated Area of High Landscape Value

More than 2,500 objections have to date been submitted to the PA over the proposed development, which the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage (SCH) has described as “excessive and inappropriate”.

The Rabat local council has argued that the hotel would damage the area’s fabric and open the door for untrammelled development nearby. NGOs have called for the PA to protect the streetscape by designating it as a Grade 2 scheduled area.

The proposal is one of two for new hotels in the area, with a second seeking to build a 110-room hotel over five terraced floors on the site of the former Tattingers nightclub further down Saqqajja Hill.

Dr Borg’s declaration in Parliament follows a similar pronouncement on a contentious planning application last week, when he said plans by the Panorama Hotel in Mellieħa for the building of three additional floors would run foul of the same policy.