Authorities dragging their feet over fuel stations, says Din l-Art Helwa

Din l-Art Helwa yesterday noted that the saga on the fuel station relocation policy goes on, with the risk that yet more land outside development zone is lost to the unquenchable thirst for such facilities whilst a proper policy is being drawn up.

The preparation of the update of the fuel stations policy was first announced in January 2018, Din l-Art Helwa noted.

“Sixteen months and two 3,000 square metre ODZ fuel stations later, the draft updated policy was published for public comment, and again brought to the attention of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Environment and Development Planning this week,” the NGO observed yesterday.

Now 20 months after it was announced the process is still dragging on. The outcome from this Committee was that, since some minor changes were made to the draft policy, it would need to undergo another six week public consultation stage.

“This can be understood in two ways,” Din l-Art Helwa said yesterday.

“Firstly, that the Government’s inability to conclude a brief policy document such as this in a timely manner, reflects a situation of utter incompetence and inefficiency.

“Alternatively, that the Government intentionally prefers not to conclude the revised fuel stations policy, thus allowing current applications to continue to be determined according to the existing policy which is more lax.”

Public consultation is commendable, Din l-Art Helwa said, but stressed it is, “difficult not to contrast the government’s current desire to consult, with what happened when the Policy Guide on the Use and Applicability of the Floor Area Ratio was being discussed in 2014. Back then, way after the public consultation period was over, the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning simply dictated that Mriehel should be added to the locations where tall buildings would be allowed.

“No additional round of public consultation was insisted upon by the Authority, even though Din l-Art Helwa and other NGOs protested; and even though the Ombudsman for Planning declared that the last-minute inclusion of Mriehel should have been put to public consultation before approval.

“There seems to have been a rush to get the updated policy in place, back then, but there is no such rush at the moment.”

The updated Policy discussed this week is an improvement on the 2015 document, Din l-Art Helwa said, but added that “it still allows the relocation of fuel stations to ODZ areas, and fuel stations, already within ODZ, to be enlarged up to 1,000 square metres.

“And most importantly, there does not seem to be any intention to apply a moratorium – as has been applied in other situations – on the processing of all pending applications for fuel stations until the proposed Policy comes into effect.”

“More public consultation is welcome,” Din l-Art Helwa stressed, but questioned whether it was truly a case of “foot-dragging”.

The Nationalist Party earlier this week took to task what it described as a “fictitious” revision of the fuel station policy, saying it is all in favour of the safeguarding of agricultural and ODZ land, and against land speculation.

Referring to a meeting of the parliamentary committee for the environment and planning held last Monday, the PN said that the previous time that the fuel station policy had been discussed was in April 2018.

Giving a timeline, the PN said that a year later, on 30 April 2019, the Planning Authority published the policy revision, with the consultation period closing on 14 June.

In the meantime, the PA continued to process applications for fuel stations based on the existing policy.

The policy, as revised, is not stipulating a minimum distance between one fuel station and another that is relocated, is allowing the relocation of stations on ODZ and agricultural land, is permitting having fuel stations up to 3,000 square metres in size on ODZ land, and is also allowing a change of use of commercial premises to fuel stations on ODZ land.

The PN said the government refused to explain what will become of the fuel stations when only electric cars will be allowed to be used, as is the government’s long-term plan.

Neither did the government explain how a very small petrol station could be relocated to a much bigger space on agricultural land.

In Monday’s meeting, the PN had objected to this fictitious revision. The PN said that the positions taken in the meeting show that while it is favour of safeguarding the environment and defending ODZ land, the government was allowing more agricultural land to be destroyed.