Planning Authority Approves Major Extension To Ramla Bay Hotel
The Planning Authority has approved a major extension to the Ramla Bay Hotel.
According to plans, the project will see the hotel add 400 guest rooms, a banqueting area, restaurants and new kitchen facilities, a gym and indoor swimming pool, car park facilities, and conduct new landscaping.
This means that the number of rooms will increase by 40% and is being done so that all rooms will have a sea view.
The only board member who voted against the development was NGO representative Romano Cassar.
“What started as a small hotel has grown in to a large one located in a sensitive area,” he said.
The hotel has long courted controversy over its ‘heart-shaped’ design, However, newly-appointed chairman Emmanuel Camilleri said that he supported the project’s “innovative design”.
He also claimed that it had the support of the Malta Tourism Authority, the Environment and Resources Authority and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, even though the latter actually objected to the design.
Still, Executive Chairman Martin Saliba dismissed the SCH’s concerns, insisting that their expertise should be limited to heritage buildings and not natural heritage.
Despite the approval, activists have lamented the impact the hotel is having on the surrounding landscape, which is a Natura 2000 site.
What do you think of the project?
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