Following multiple protests and thousands of representations being submitted, a Planning Authority Board Meeting was held earlier this morning to decide on whether to green light a controversial high-rise development in the former ITS site in Pembroke.

This morning’s meeting had to be held in the hall of Ħamrun’s Liceo after over 4,500 people submitted representations to the project. Five and a half hours after the meeting kicked off at 10am, the decision finally arrived, and it looks like the development will go ahead after all.

PN MEP candidate Micheal Brigulgio tweeted out thanking the PA Board members who voted against the development, going on to lament the fact that “the majority of PA Board members have blessed the ruin of Pembroke.”

“Let’s keep being active for a better environment in Malta, and not a soulless state,” Briguglio finished.

Last night, Moviment Graffitti had warned its followers that a number of db Group employees would be arriving to the meeting in organised transport, saying they’d protest outside if no space would be made available to them.

The NGO went on to say that the Planning Authority was telling people who wanted to book a place that no further reservations could be made, even though all of those 4,500 people who submitted representations had a legal right to be present and voice their concerns. “Ignore this email and attend the Board Meeting anyway,” Moviment Graffitti told their followers.

Proposed by the db Group (which was leased land on the former ITS campus in Pembroke), the project consists of a 17-storey hotel with 315 rooms and a 37-storey residential tower.

During the last eight months, residents, NGOs and Local Councils have come together for the Do Not Bury US Alive campaign, highlighting the extensive impact this project would have on residents and the environment.

Just two years ago, the similarly-controversial 38-storey Townsquare development in Sliema was recommended for approval by the case officer, but it was approved by one single vote and later revoked by the appeals tribunal for being “too excessive”.

What do you make of this latest development? Let us know in the comments below

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).