Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1478174
9 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 7 SEPTEMBER 2022 Mizzi Estates apply to rebuild derelict Mellieha hotel on protected site JAMES DEBONO THE former Festival Hotel nuzzled on the hillside below the Red Tower in Mellieha could be rebuilt with owners submitting plans for a new ho- tel in the ecologically sensitive area. The new plans for the 20,000sq.m site come in lieu of a 'method statement' to re- move or mitigate the impact of the unsightly ruins of the exist- ing abandoned structure. In 2018, the Planning Author- ity served the owners of the ho- tel with an enforcement order for leaving the site in a derelict state and "causing injury to amenity". The owners had to present a method statement to address the issue. But now, the site owners, Mizzi Estates Limited, a com- pany owned by the Mizzi Or- ganisation and whose directors include Maurice Mizzi, Ve- ronica Mizzi and Christopher Mizzi, have presented an ap- plication foreseeing the demo- lition of the old structure and its replacement with a new ho- tel built over five terraced floor levels above the ground floor. The building will consist of a reception area, hotel rooms, pool, restaurants, back of house, parking spaces and oth- er ancillary facilities. The original aparthotel locat- ed in the Sdieri area, between the Red Tower and the boat- houses in Mellieha consisted of 31 self-catering apartments designed by architect Richard England. It was designed in a way that the roof of each apartment served as the terrace of the overlying one to minimise the visual impact. But the hillside started giving way before con- struction was even completed and the hotel never received guests. The original hotel was con- structed in the 1980s before the designation of the area as a buffer zone for an Area of Ecological Importance and be- fore the planting of indigenous trees for the Foresta 2000 pro- ject. An appeal by the compa- ny against the 2018 planning enforcement is still pending. Minutes of tribunal sittings re- fer to ongoing discussions be- tween the parties to resolve the issue. In the last sitting in June a lawyer representing the site's owners informed the Tribu- nal of his client's intention to present a new application for the site. The hearing was ad- journed to 6 October. In 2017, the company pre- sented new plans in relation to an application presented back in 1994. The plans foresaw a 1,600sq.m spa and hydrotherapy centre, 12 apartments with pools, a physical rehabilitation centre, bar and restaurant, and confer- ence room. Subsequently, new plans sub- mitted a month before the PA enforcement was issued, pro- posed a masterplan for the construction of 23 villas. But these plans have now been withdrawn and the appli- cation is limited to rebuilding the hotel. The North West Local Plan which regulates development in the area states that the re- development of existing tour- ist accommodation facilities in rural areas, will only be consid- ered in very exceptional cases where the new proposal is for a hotel which has very high de- sign quality and considerably improves the rural or coastal landscape. But "even in such rare cases, the increase in the number of beds or the intensification of the existing uses will not nor- mally be favourably consid- ered".