Żabbar’s mayor has sharply condemned the approval of a new five-storey home for the elderly in the town square, calling the project “horrific” and saying it would “rape” the locality’s character.

In a blistering statement posted to Facebook, Mayor Jorge Grech said the development amounted to a “destruction” imposed on the community and one that would “permanently erase the identity and character of our city”.

The project, approved for Misraħ tal-Madonna Medjatriċi and Triq Ġanni Bonavia directly across from the parish church, drew heavy criticism from Grech for what he described as a complete “lack of planning”. He warned that the home’s blank high walls and support structures would tower over residents and be visible from several key viewpoints, as reported by Times of Malta.

Grech stressed that the Żabbar Local Council had unanimously objected to application PA/016217/24 “from day one”. Although developers reduced the height from seven to five storeys, the council insisted that anything higher than three storeys beside the Żabbar Sanctuary Museum would “severely” harm the classical character of the surrounding streetscape, considered one of the locality’s most beautiful areas.