Objections pour in against proposed Balzan office block with pool

The Planning Authority has been inundated with objections to a proposed office block replacing one of a row of terraced houses on the road opposite San Anton Palace, Attard.

Apart from doubling the height from the present two-storey building, objectors’ eyebrows were raised over the fact that the plans for the proposed office block include a bar area, a swimming pool, an industrial size kitchen, equipped with cold and dry storage facilities, food preparation areas, areas for cooking, washing and serving and a seating area on the pool deck.

Submitted by Anthony Spiteri, on behalf of Tal-Ħerba Environment Ltd, the application proposes the demolition of the existing building, the excavation of three floors of underground parking, a pool at groundfloor level and offices over three floors plus more offices on a receded topmost floor.

According to objectors, the development is an attempt to circumvent a previously rejected 2017 application which had unsuccessfully tried to a shift the residential priority demarcation along Vjal De Paule.

They argue that the development is in a residential priority area, but the proposed use is not residential.

This breaches the urban objective, they...