The Planning Authority will on Thursday decide on a proposal for a private swimming pool just metres away from a 6,000-year-old archaeological site near the Ġgantija Temples in Gozo.
The application, which is recommended for refusal, seeks to extend an old building located outside development zones in Xagħra, as well as a swimming pool and surrounding paving in the backyard.
The building is just 20 metres away from the Brochtorff Circle (Iċ-Ċirku tax-Xagħra), a Neolithic funerary complex dating back to 4,000BC. The archaeological site, a series of underground caves used to bury the dead, is a Class A scheduled monument and part of the area of archaeological importance surrounding the Ġgantija Temples, some 300 metres away.
The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage strongly objected to the plans, which it said, affect an area of high archaeological sensitivity and one where no development should be permitted.
The heritage watchdog recommended that only restoration works carried out in keeping with accepted conservation standards, guidelines and practices should be allowed on the site.
Heritage organisations Din L-Art Ħelwa, Wirt Għawdex and the Archaeological Society of Malta…
