Nature-related works linked to the proposed Six Senses Comino hotel have been suspended pending an appeal against the project’s environmental permit.
The Six Senses hotel development itself already has a planning permit, which is currently being appeal. While that appeal was pending, the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) had authorised certain environmental works to proceed, including the removal and transplantation of hundreds of trees and shrubs.
That second permit was also appealed.
The Environmental and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) ruled today that the environmental permit should be suspended pending the outcome of this second appeal.
Project render: HV Hospitality
HV Hospitality, Hili Ventures’ hospitality arm which is behind the Six Senses project, didn’t object to the suspension request.
It said the only activity covered by the permit that requires a specific timeframe is the transplanting of trees and shrubs, which must take place in winter to maximise survival.
The appeal is expected to conclude before winter and no other works are planned before then.
HV Hospitality stressed that the Six Senses hotel has been designed as a reduction of the former Comino Hotel and bungalows.
“The finished hotel and bungalow footprint will be 8,244 square metres smaller than the hotel and bungalows it replaces, in line with the local plan's own policy of rehabilitating existing tourism facilities rather than building anew,” it said.
“It has been conceived as a new benchmark for sustainable luxury in Malta and the Mediterranean, in partnership with Six Senses, an exclusive luxury hospitality brand that blends sustainable, eco-friendly design with holistic wellness and a deep connection to the natural environment.”
HV Hospitality previously stated that the uprooting of trees is necessary for the recovery of native habitats.
“Of approximately 2,500 tree and shrub specimens currently on site, around 1,900 are alien, invasive or ecologically incompatible species whose removal is necessary for native habitats to recover,” it said.
“Of the roughly 600 native and protected specimens, around 550 will be carefully transplanted and around 50 permanently removed, each compensated at a ratio of 1:10. All works will proceed under specialist ecological supervision, timed to the winter season to maximise transplantation success.”
HV Hospitality said the project will add around 55,000 new trees and plants, more than 20 times what exists on site today, and will return more than 8,200 square metres of previously built-up land to its natural state.
