Maghtab petrol station application rejected

The Board of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority has voted against the application for an ODZ petrol station in Maghtab. Only three board members voted in favour, including deputy chairperson Elisabeth Ellul.

Government representative Joe Sammut and opposition representative Ryan Callus were among the four who voted against. The rest abstained.

The stumbling block for the application was a local plan policy designating the area as a rural category settlement where – a point that was overlooked by the case officer who had recommended MEPA’s approval. Development deemed “incompatible” with the area’s designation as “rural settlement” is ruled out by the local plan. Objectors argued that this local plan policy over-ruled the recent policy allowing the re-location of petrol stations to ODZ areas.

Members of the public and reporters present for the board meeting were asked to wait outside while the board discusses the proposed permit for the petrol station.

Ellul asked the media and the public to leave the meeting after invoking a clause in the law allowing the board members to deliberate in private. The vote would however be public. 

Although legal, the procedure has not been used in past decade. The vote will be taken later whilst members of the public chose to wait outside for half an hour.

MEPA chairman Vince Cassar was not present in the meeting and the meeting was chaired by Deputy Chairperson Elizabeth Ellul. 

The long-awaited decision was postponed last week after an argument erupted between Cassar and architect Carmel Cacopardo who was representing the objectors. Cacopardo had accused the Planning Directory of "professional disloyalty", after the case officer report over looked the local plan policy.

The case officer report recommended the approval of the construction of a controversial petrol station on ODZ land in Maghtab despite objections from residents, the local council, and Mepa's own environment directorate.

The application, by Paul Abela, of Abel Energy, is to demolish two derelict farmhouses and build a fuel station with an electric car charging station, car wash, shop, car mechanic workshop, stores and a parking lot that would take 17 vehicles.

The proposed site is a 3,593-square-metre, triangular-shaped piece of land in Triq is-Salina and Trejqet l-Arznu, Naxxar, near the T'Alla w Ommu hill.

The site is the lowest point of the valley immediately after T'Alla w Ommu.

In representations to the planning authority, the Naxxar local council argued that the application ran counter to the area's local plan. The council raised concerns about pollution, the risk of contamination to the groundwater and the effect on nearby residences and agricultural fields. It said the project would also set a precedent, opening the way for possible future developments.

MEPA’s environment protection directorate noted that the area was mainly characterised by industrial uses but, nevertheless, considers the proposal as unacceptable from an environmental point of view given that it is located in a predominantly open and undeveloped rural area and involves excessive land take-up.

Environmental NGOs had warned when the policy was approved that it risked giving rise to a new urban sprawl.

There are 79 registered petrol stations in Malta, that is, one in every five square kilometres, compared to the European average of one every 41 square kilometres.