Mepa approves Forum Hotel development

The Mepa planning board has approved a permit to demolish the disused Forum Hotel in St Julian's and replace it with houses and apartments. All the board members voted in favour except for Victor Axiaq. The application was to demolish the hotel and build 25 houses, 78 apartments, offices, a supermarket and underground garages on the site. The gutted, 142-room hotel and its three pools, tennis and squash courts and pool bar lie on a footprint of about 11,300 square metres. The plans are to construct a main block of two and three-bedroom apartments and blocks of houses, with a maximum height of three storeys, some with pools.A number of residents raised their concerns and complaints especially during a separate planning control application to introduce a new road opening to Triq L-Uqija to create access to the Forum hotel site. Their concerns revolved around increasing the road level, which would create problems of water run-off, they said, Former EU Commissioner Joe Borg, a resident, said they had nothing against the project "but we need to safeguard the our interests". He suggested moving the outlet of the new road further down, which would make a great difference to the residents...