A Sliema restaurant’s bid for outdoor tables and chairs has been rejected in a “victory” for residents battling against the take-up of public space in their neighbourhood.

The Planning Commission board found that the proposed extension of outdoor catering over the pavement and parking spaces within the residential zone on Tower Road, corner with Amery Street and Luzju Lane, would negatively impact the area.

Application PA/06496/21 had also proposed alterations to the façade of Kebab Bistro and the sanctioning of others, but it was turned down unanimously last week.

The commission found that the proposal conflicted with the planning policy, which sets standards for outdoor catering areas on public open spaces.

According to the North Harbour Local Plan, the site looks out onto a designated residential area, the board pointed out.

Food and drink establishments were not permitted there in principle and, therefore, the proposed outdoor tables and chairs would further intensify this activity.

The refusal to sanction a “very unpleasant 11-metre-high screen, bulging out over one-and-a-half metres from the rear wall of the 90-year-old Britannia Building on Tower Road” was also welcomed by objectors.

Charles Falzon, representing the Navarino Court owners, who objected to the application in the vicinity of their block, quoted the Planning Commission board chair as saying: “We cannot continue to fill every empty space all over Malta with tables and chairs”.

Citizens’ rights

Falzon said the board had expressed concern about issues of “uglification, airflows and aesthetics” affecting the narrow Trejqet Luzju.

“Unless citizens stand up for their rights, nobody will do it for them, except for environment NGOs like Moviment Graffitti and Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar,” Falzon insisted, urging community action.

“It pays to fight for our rights and to support such initiatives by standing up to be counted and offering our collective backing,” he added.

“This decision by the commission is among the very few instances where it used its discretion to safeguard security and other issues, despite Transport Malta’s eventual withdrawal of its original objection to tables and chairs in such a critical Amery Street/Tower Road corner,” Falzon continued, mentioning the “sane reasons” brought up by objectors and the recommendation for refusal by the PA’s case officer.

He expressed hopes that the views expressed by the Planning Commission would kickstart a new policy regarding tables and chairs on pavements.

Legal representative Claire Bonello reiterated that “if residents persist, fight and argue the law, more of these abusive applications can be stopped”.

She pointed out that the Planning Commission, this time, scrutinised the case very thoroughly, insisting that “we have reached a tipping point”.

Bonello said: “We cannot go on like this, with catering areas on every pavement, creating obstacles for wheelchair users and pedestrians alike.”

The issue of the take-up of outside spaces by catering establishments was recently highlighted in a case in Victoria where life in a once quiet, narrow, dead-end alley was being disrupted by applications for restaurants and wine bars that threatened to turn it into a “disaster” for neighbours.

A former bakery in the quaint Triq Mons Ġużeppi Farrugia has just been given the green light to set up tables and chairs.

The case of a kiosk at The Strand, which grew into a full-blown restaurant, sprawling onto the public promenade, has also hit the headlines, as sanctioning of illegalities, including its extension, was recently also refused.

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