Plans for mega fuel stations cut down to size, but delayed rules could be costly

How 2015 fuel policy rules impact on pending decisions, and why new rules will change plans

The new rules will limit relocations of urban pumps to spaces of just 1,000 square metres and only when the site is committed for non-agricultural development. Positively the new policy applies to all pending applications
The new rules will limit relocations of urban pumps to spaces of just 1,000 square metres and only when the site is committed for non-agricultural development. Positively the new policy applies to all pending applications

Malta’s new fuel stations policy has effectively closed most the loopholes that the 2015 rules controversially had, and nips in the bud numerous applications still pending a decision.

But the dilly-dallying in approving the new policy before Aaron Farrugia took office as environment minister, means that at least four applications rejected by the Planning Authority in the past months may yet be approved on appeal under the old policy.

The Planning Authoriry board had refused a number of fuel stations, often under pressure of public outrage, by resting on generic policies included in the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development or local plans to circumvent the 2015 policy.

The new rules will limit relocations of urban pumps to spaces of just 1,000 square metres and only when the site is committed for non-agricultural development. Positively the new policy applies to all pending applications.

But it will not apply to at least four pending appeals still be determined by the 2015 policy: the rejection of mega fuel stations in Attard, Marsaskala, Zabbar and Maghtab. Farrugia correctly confirmed in an interview with MaltaToday that legally, the appeals tribunal will have to decide on the basis of the policy in place at the time of the board’s refusal.

But this is because the two-year delay in the approval of the new policy ensured these applications were all determined under the old policy.  This is why NGOs like Moviment Graffitti had originally called for a suspension of decisions on petrol stations until the new policy is approved.

Neither is Farrugia responsible for the dilly-dallying during the last two years when planning fell under the responsibility of Ian Borg. Although the policy did legally require three rounds of six-week public consultations, a lot of time was lost in procrastination in between these legally required public consultations, during which applications were still being determined right up to December last year.

Approved under old policy

The 2015 rules led to the approval of four mega petrol stations: two in Burmarrad, one in Luqa near the Water Services Corporation, and a smaller one in Marsaskala opposite the family park. Of these only one, the Burmarrad station opposite the Kiabi discount store, involved a completely new fuel station not relocated from an urban site.

Another 3,000sq.m fuel station in Maghtab was approved in 2017 – only to be rejected again last year after being sent back to the PA board by an appeals board for the second consecutive time.

A number of applications were rejected. The most controversial of these was development of a fuel station along the Rabat road in the vicinity of the St Mary of Victories chapel by Ludwig Camilleri.

The pending appeals

Under the new policy, Camilleri’s application would have been automatically refused because the new rules will exclude petrol stations on agricultural land. Camilleri’s appeal, filed by the former Planning Authority CEO Ian Stafrace, disputes the refusal, reached because the nearby Pit Stop petrol station in Attard is at a distance of less than 500m from his proposed fuel station. Camilleri’s architect claims the distance is actually 502m, and 510m apart, using the future configuration of the Central Link road project.

Camilleri, son of Piju Camilleri, advisor to the former Labour minister Lorry Sant, acquired a Birkirkara petrol station licence in 2014, with the intention of relocating it to a property outside development zones. In the 1990s the site had been subject to a planning enforcement against an illegal dwelling by Michael Axisa, but the debris was left on site. Camilleri’s proposal is located on the part of the site impacted by this enforcement.

Another pending appeal also presented by the planning authority’s former CEO Ian Stafrace on behalf of Paul Abela questions the legality of the PA’s refusal of the Maghtab fuel station, because the developer was not informed of the reason for refusal before the sitting was held. In fact the PA’s planning directorate was still officially recommending the approval of the application before the sitting was held.

The appellant pointed out that since the board had indicated its intention to overturn the case officer’s favourable recommendation, it was legally obliged to issue new reasons for refusal before taking a vote in another session.

The reason verbally given before the vote was that a strategic plan for Maghtab approved in 2018 made it clear that the controversial fuel station policy does not apply to this area.

But the appellants disagree with this interpretation, arguing that this simply meant that the application for a petrol station could not be evaluated according to the strategic plan but according to the 2015 fuel stations policy.

The Planning Authority’s appeals tribunal (EPRT) had already revoked two previous planning board decisions, one of them in 2016 because the the PA board failed to explain why SPED policies protecting the rural environment should take precedence over the fuel stations policy.

Another appeal, this time presented by architect Robert Musumeci, involves the extension of a fuel station in Zabbar on 500sq.m of adjacent agricultural land near the Hompesch Arch.

The latest refusal to be issued by the PA was in December last year, for the proposed extension of the newly approved Marsaskala petrol station opposite the Family Park, from 1,500sq.m to 3,000sq.m as foreseen under the old policy.

But in another appeal presented by Stafrace on behalf of Patrick Guntrip, the Marsaskala developers argue that the PA board justified its decision on generic policies protecting the rural environment, and not on the basis of the 2015 fuel station rules.

So while the new policy does not apply to pending appeals, it does apply to a number of pending applications: such as the application to relocate a miniscule kerb-side pump in Pjazza Savina in Victoria, for a massive fuel station on 3,000sq.m of agricultural land along Hal Far road in Birzebbugia.

Another is the relocation of Siggiewi village square pump to 1,600 sq.m of agricultural land along Mgr Mikiel Azzopardi road. The new policy may be invoked to justify this relocation as the current location in front of a historical chapel is damaging to its surroundings.

But both applications exceed the land use threshold of 1,000 sq.m envisaged in the new policy and the ban on development on the development of fuel stations on agricultural land.