Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1539444
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 SEPTEMBER 2025 NEWS Pembroke residents choke under Asthma attacks, sleepless nights and dust-filled homes. Residents say db Group's project has turned their JULIA*, a Pembroke resident, used to suffer a bad asthma at- tack once every four years or so. But ever since db Group started works on its City Centre project, she now has to resort to steroids for attacks she gets every six months. "I had to increase treatment. I'm buying the best treatment out of my own pocket since other treatment isn't working well on me," she says. A neighbour of hers, Jean- nette*, has a relative with two small children who are also bearing the brunt of the con- struction works. "The num- ber of times they've had to be taken to a paediatrician with a cough... it's non-stop." Pembroke residents have seen a dramatic change to their home town because of this project. What was once a family-oriented town, Pem- broke now has a large, grey construction project tower- ing over it, and it will only get bigger as works continue. The final product will be two 17- and 18-storey towers housing apartments and a Hard Rock hotel, unless more floors are added. Several residents describe to MaltaToday their experience living in what has become "an open-air construction site". "It's a major inconvenience. The sound of trucks at 3am, 4am unloading heavy machin- ery. So much dust you can barely open a window. And the influx this project will create... I don't know how Pembroke will cope with the traffic that will be generated," Jeannette tells me. Residents know that this is just the start of their troubles. Karl Camilleri, who is also an architect, says the locality al- ready struggles with the chaos of St George's Bay, a nearby touristic area full of nightlife. With more development pro- jects in the pipeline for the ar- ea, such as the Villa Rosa plans, he and other residents describe their situation as a "night- mare". Kristy* describes how mix- ers drive into the area day and night, parking in the middle of two-way streets and ob- structing traffic. These mixers keep their engines on all night long so that the works can be carried out quickly. "They're building a storey a week! This is a huge trauma." Apart from the dust and ma- chinery, the project itself is a major eyesore. Julia calls it "ugly". Kristy says it was "over- whelming". Karl describes it as "out of context". And Jean- nette: "It's phallic." The City Centre project promises to be a major devel- opment. Built on the site of a former tourism school, the mixed-use development will house sky villas, a rooftop pool, residential units, a shopping mall, as well as restaurants and retail brand outlets. Pembroke has never had such a large de- velopment in its territory, and residents are just as concerned with what happens once the project is finalised. "It's a ripple effect on the whole community," Camilleri says. "Our planning system tends to view huge projects like this in isolation, but their effect on neighbouring towns and vil- lages, and even hotels in the ar- ea. But the effect will be huge for us residents." Residents put up a fight over the years. Over 14,000 objec- tions had been submitted to the Planning Authority during the three representation peri- ods for the project. The local councils of Pembroke, Swieqi and St Julian's had also filed objections, as did several envi- ronmental and cultural NGOs. But with the project approved and works half-way to com- pletion, there is a bitter sense among residents that all their work was for nothing. Db Group put up their own fight for the project too. When the Planning Authority first approved a version of the pro- ject in 2018, db Group organ- ised a transport service for a number of their employees to attend the six-hour board meeting. The company had al- so embarked on an aggressive PR campaign. "10 years of battle for noth- ing. They were too powerful," Jeannette says with an air of resignation. Residents are even less im- pressed by their local coun- cil, which they say abandoned them on this project after se- curing a deal with the develop- ers to build several community projects. "At least the local council should stand up for its resi- dents," Camilleri says. "Db gave the council a gift, or 'contribu- tion', for a community centre, but the local council doesn't have the power to accept the money. So apart from the fact that the council went behind our backs and didn't defend us, it did something that, in the eyes of the law, shouldn't even happen." A Pembroke community centre, db's 'whitewash' This summer, Pembroke's lo- cal council voted unanimous- ly on an agreement with db Group to build several major community projects. These include a community build- ing with a multipurpose hall, a library, a health clinic and childcare centre, as well as a local garden with underground parking. Residents did not take kindly to this news. During a heat- ed council meeting, residents presented a petition expressing "anger and frustration" over what they described as secre- tive negotiations carried out without any public consulta- tion. Residents accused the council of betraying the community's trust by holding closed-door meetings with the developers. NICOLE MEILAK nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt All photos by James Bianchi/MaltaToday