Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1498223
NEWS 16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 APRIL 2023 Watchdogs say no to 'train wagon boathouse' in St Thomas Bay JAMES DEBONO A bid to turn a British cargo car- riage into a fixed beach room in St Thomas Bay, is facing op- position by the Environment Resources Authority and the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage. The train wagon predates the 1968 survey sheets, but the en- vironmental and heritage watch- dogs are warning that turning a temporary structure into a permanent building will only formalise the beach room area further. The corroded metal structure forms part of a row of beach rooms located on Ix-Xatt il-Bat- terija ta' Rihana, in St Thomas Bay. A request to permit its recon- struction triggered an investiga- tion into whether the wood-and- steel structure had originally formed part of the Maltese rail infrastructure, and therefore an item of heritage value. The deteriorated carriage was found to be a British import mounted on a vehicle during colonial times, that were also used as storage sheds. The SCH concluded it was not worthy of preservation. But the Planning Authority has also received another request to regularise another "boathouse" 90 metres away from the wagon, this time consisting of a fixed stone structure with external steel spiral staircase, a parapet wall and a steel awning structure at roof level. The ERA is digging its heels to oppose regularisation, saying illegal development in the area has "resulted in considerable de- terioration of the site's coastal environment and its surround- ings" and that approval would only lead to increased pressure for similar developments. The PA's rural policy guide- lines cannot be invoked to allow pre-1978 structures to be regu- larised, according to a decision by the PA's planning commis- sion, if applicants cannot prove legal, residential use of the boat- houses – illegal structures built in a kind of coastal shantytown. In 2006, local plans proposed an action plan to regularise these beach rooms but nothing ever saw the light of day, with the PA continuing to refuse appli- cations to regularise boathouses. The corroded metal cargo carriage in St Thomas Bay