Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/739032
7 James Debono MIDI plc, the consortium behind Tigné Point, has applied for pri- vate beach facilities on 896 square metres of land on the southern Tigné shoreline below the exist- ing pool and restaurants area overlooking Marsamxett harbour. According to MIDI CEO Luke Coppini, the application does not impinge on the first five metres of foreshore, which he claims will remain accessible to the public. "Should the development take place, MIDI will be carrying out a rehabilitation of the area, in- cluding the installation of a lift or ramps in line with National Commission for Disabled Persons (KNDP) regulations". Coppini claims the facilities being proposed are meant to en- hance accessibility to the area in question because at present peo- ple can only access it from a "very dangerous concrete staircase". "The area on the south shore where we are proposing the lido has no safe access thereto and certainly no access which is in ac- cordance with KNDP regulations. The proposed application intends to rehabilitate the surrounding area, making it more accessible". MIDI already has a development permit for a beach facility on the north shore of Tigné Point and for developing a diving and sailing club on the south shore. "The application for beach fa- cilities on the south shore is in- tended to explore the possibil- ity of shifting the lido concession from the north shore to the south shore," Coppini told MaltaToday. In September 2014 the Planning Authority, after objections by the Sliema local council, turned down two applications for beach con- cessions in Sliema, one at Ghar id-Dud presented by the Preluna and another in Qui-Si-Sana pre- sented by developer Michael Stivala. The PA is currently con- sidering another application to upgrade the existing Plevna lido in Qui-Si-Sana over "a smaller footprint." During a recent meeting the Sliema Local Council unani- mously agreed that public access should be guaranteed at Tigné, in line with Parliament's recent approval of a Public Domain Act. Sliema local councillors also unanimously agreed that any pos- sible contractual shortcomings by MIDI should be investigated. MIDI has recently granted lim- ited access to the Manoel Island foreshore following protests by Kamp Emergenza Ambjent and the Gzira local council. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt maltatoday, Sunday, 16 OctOber 2016 News mIDI wants private beach at Tigné Point Once-illegal Riviera hotel seeks permit for 53 rooms James Debono A small hotel illegally extended by the Polidano Group but regularised in 2001, and which then had an ex- tra floor added to it in 2015, is set to grow further by 53 rooms built on the hotel's fifth floor. The Riviera Hotel at Marfa was sold to FTI Hotel Management Mal- ta, a company owned by German company Frosch Touristik, in 2011. In this way the 61-room hotel grew to a 242-room hotel in 2001, and is now set to increase from the 293 rooms approved in 2015 to 346 rooms. Plans submitted by applicant Beppe Bugeja show an increase of rooms in the fifth floor, from the approved 34 rooms to 66, and an increase from 57 rooms to 77 on the fourth floor. Although the extension is being proposed on the same area approved in 2014, the increase in massing of the hotel is bound to have a visual impact. In 2015 the hotel was allowed a recessed fifth floor to minimise the visual impact, but this will change to a full-blown floor if the application is approved. Originally built as a small 16-room hotel in the 1960s, the 'Solemar' be- came the centre of a planning con- troversy in the late 1990s. Devel- oper Charles Polidano obtained a PA permit to extend the hotel in 1997 despite a negative recommendation by the PA's planning directorate; another application for an extension was refused in 2000 but Polidano carried out the expansion illegally, and in 2001 the PA was asked to sanction this extension retroactively. The case caused wide embarrass- ment within the PA, as its planning directorate urged a refusal, arguing that the development was incompat- ible with the rural and coastal char- acteristics of the area, and also ran counter to the Structure Plan. Instead the then-MEPA board legalised the development on pain of a Lm200,000 (€460,000) fine on Polidano. The location (ringed) where MIDI plc wants private beach facilities