Fuel station policy does not prioritise environment, ERA chairman tells House committee

The chairman of the Environment Resources Authority said tonight that the petrol station policy, introduced three years ago, was specifically intended to prioritise the economy and human health, not the environment, although he acknowledged that the environment should be given greater importance.

“There are other policies which protect the environment, and we don’t need this policy to tell us not to disrupt the environment,” Victor Axiaq told the House committee for planning and the environment.

The committee met this afternoon to discuss a petition filed by the Democratic Party’s Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia, calling for a revision of the Planning Authority’s petrol station policy.

He said such debate was important one since it provided guidelines and specific recommendations on how the policy could be amended.

Environment Minister Jose Herrera said that he did not appreciate the “mushrooming of petrol stations on ODZ land” noting that, for years, development in areas within Outside Development Zones (ODZ) had pushed him to make political statements highlighting the need to protect decreasing natural land.

Read more: With fuel stations popping up in rural areas, the Environment Minister requests a review of existing policy

PN MP Karol Aquilina suggested that the only reason ODZ is being considered is because it would cost less.

“The size of fuel stations allowed by the policy is a huge exaggeration, when today we have petrol stations which are much smaller,” he said. “Why is there a sudden need to increase them by so much?”

PA CEO Johann Buttigieg said that in the three years that the policy has been in place, three permits had been granted – one for a new fuel station, and two for relocations.

He said it was the Malta Resources Authority which issued new licenses for operation, not the PA.

“The planning authority can carry out a regimentation for the land to be used in the most efficient way possible,” he said. “I don’t think the policy should be used to protect any sector, which is why it is drafted in the way that it is.”

He did, however, insist that the policy did not propose that fuel stations be located in rural areas which are entirely cut off, and that it expressly prohibited locating petrol stations on good quality agricultural land.

As to Herrera’s concern that the policy encouraged speculators who otherwise could not develop in ODZ, Buttigieg said that the government could file its objections and the PA would take it from there.

Read more: Fuel station rules encouraging speculation on rural land

Godfrey Farrugia noted that, in sectors like pharmacies, quotas had been set as to the number of licenses allowed.

“What is the issue with setting standards depending on geographical and population density?”

Sandro Chetchuti of the Malta Developers Association said that it was not true that developers apply to build on ODZ land because it is cheap. In reality, he said, the process was lengthy and expensive.

“There are many fuel stations which are not up to standard. The owners have grown tired and they’re not up for making the investment,” he said.

“It’s not true that the area in question is agricultural land, as opposite to many containment areas there would be barren and abandoned fields, some of which cannot even be referred to as fields.”

AD chairman Carmel Cacopardo insisted that the fuel station policy could not be discussed in a vacuum but had to be evaluated within the contest of other policies, as well as the number of cars on the road, the state of the roads and the fact that Malta would be going electric.

Due to the fact that Malta was planning to switch to electric vehicles by 2020, the discussion should be about closing fuel stations, not opening new ones or relocating them, he said.

“Since you are giving permits for fuel stations, you are telling owners that they have a right to make a return on investment,” he said, adding that the government needed to decide what it wants to do and to be consistent.

Buttigieg said that fuel stations abroad were being turned into superchargers for electric cars and the same could happen in Malta.

Claire Bonello, a spokesperson for Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, said that she did not agree with the PA’s interpretation that the ancillary facilities deviate from the policy. “Actually, they are encouraged,” she said, adding that there is no clear deviation in the way the policy is written.

The committee will next meet on Tuesday 13 February, for which representatives of the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) will be present.