Birżebbuġa kerbside pump could be relocated to Ħal Far car park

A kerbside fuel pump in Birżebbuġa could be located out of the locality to a car park in Ħal Far.

The existing fuel pump is situated in Misraħ is-Summit, a stone’s throw away from Pretty Bay and just a few metres away from the popular Borda’s takeaway.

The proposal is to shut down the fuel pump and relocate it instead to a much bigger site near the Jobsplus training centre.

The application is seeking a permit for a fuel station along Triq tal-Ġebel on a 912sq.m car park. The proposed fuel station is set to include a small retail outlet and a car wash.

Back in 2015, faced with an application to upgrade the existing pump, the Birżebbuġa local council had stated its preference for the fuel pump to be relocated from its present site, which is a residential area.

In the application documents, Marco Grixti, the owner of the kerbside station, has declared sole ownership of the new, larger site in Ħal Far.

The car park area was identified as being part of the Jobsplus premises in a previous planning application on the site.

The application will be one of the first to be assessed under a policy approved in 2020 to regulate the relocation of fuel stations to the ODZ.

Unlike a previous liberal policy, which permitted 3,000sq.m fuel stations on agricultural land, the new policy limits such developments to 1,000sq.m on committed and non-agricultural land.

The restrictive approach has led to a sharp decline in applications to relocate petrol stations to the ODZ. But this application seems to tick the new policy’s boxes.