Supermarket and office complex to be built on Carmelite Priory site behind church in Balluta

I found out about this through pure chance. There has been nothing in the media, no awareness raised at all, and even Astrid Vella of Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, who made a screeching fuss about every last thing round the Sliema/St Julian’s area right up until March 2013, appears not to have noticed.

Which is exactly what the developers wanted, because guess what, the mandatory period during which NGOs and members of the public can object has expired.

Natives of the Sliema/St Julian’s/Balluta/Lazy Corner area will not need to have this site map explained to them. The yellow area shows the site for which a permit has been applied for.

The left street-opening is on Scicluna Street, which begins as a steep ramp barred to traffic right next to Balluta Buildings. The right street-opening is on what used to be Main Street, St Julian’s, right next to the old Carmelite Convent and roughly where Speedy Garage is, and which has now been renamed ‘Tower Road’.

Until fairly recently, both Tower Road and Sliema used to end where Old College Street opens onto the main road right outside Fresco’s restaurant. But now Tower Road has been extended all the way to the Barracuda Restaurant, so the Carmelite Convent, which used to mark the start of Main Street, St Julian’s, is now officially on Tower Road.

The site encompasses the Carmelite Convent’s massive garden, which is at the rear of both the convent and its Carmelite Church of Balluta.

The application is for a supermarket and office complex. The supermarket will be immediately behind the protected buildings on either side of the church, and of course the church itself.

The application number is PA/00813/15. The site is 3,926 square metres (3.5 tumoli). The plans are not public, but local councils have access to them.

The MEPA Planning Directorate will have to carry out various studies, including a traffic impact assessment. The site is accessible only from the traffic-congestion hotspot where Tower Road, Sliema becomes Main Street, St Julian’s, near the bend at the Barracuda Restaurant, and from Scicluna Street, which is a short, narrow hill that is not accessible from the main road but only through a tight, one-way street at the back of Balluta Buildings.

They will also need method description i.e. how they’re going to excavate a crater as large as a quarry with the least disturbance to neighbours in a highly congested inhabited area on a main traffic route.