Tribunal revokes refusal of ODZ fuel station in Tal-Balal

The Environment and Planning Review Tribunal has revoked a decision taken by the Planning Authority eight years ago to refuse a petrol station in Iklin.

The petrol station was proposed by Paul Falzon over 3,000sq.m of land outside the development zone.

The petrol station was proposed along the arterial road which links Iklin to San Gwann and Naxxar on abandoned agricultural land. The site was illegally used as a makeshift carpark.

The new petrol station is 350m away from the VC petrol station and the adjacent MacDonalds restaurant.

The fuel station was refused because it was found in breach of a policy regulating the development of petrol stations in ODZ which has since then been superseded by a more stringent policy. The new policy bans new fuel stations if they are at less than 500m from an existing service station in the same traffic direction. The policy only allows fuel stations on the opposite side of the road from an existing fuel station, “if it can be demonstrated that traffic on the opposite lane from the existing fuel station cannot easily access the existing service station”.

In his appeal, Paul Falzon insisted the authority could favourably consider fuel stations on the opposite side of the road from an existing fuel station, if it can be demonstrated that traffic on the opposite lane from the existing petrol station cannot easily access it. Moreover, Falzon insisted that the proposed fuel station and the existing one are not in the same direction of traffic.

The PA argued that although not situated in the same direction of traffic as the VC petrol station, at the time when the permits were issued, road markings still allowed right turns to the existing service station for traffic moving towards Naxxar.

The refusal was confirmed by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal in 2021 but the decision was revoked by the law courts based on testimony by transport and infrastructure Malta officials that the existing fuel station was no longer accessible from the opposite carriage way.

The case is further complicated by changes to the road network made after the PA’s refusal which effectively turned a single carriageway into a dual one.

The Tribunal has now ordered the Planning Authority to reconsider the application and to issue a new case officer report. 

But since the original decision, the 2015 policy regulating fuel stations has been replaced by a new stringent policy approved in 2020. Although the new policy includes the same provisions banning fuel stations near each other if these are in the same traffic direction, it includes other provisions which limit the size of petrol stations  to a maximum of 1,000sq.m. Crucially, the new policy only allows the relocation of existing fuel stations to the ODZ and no longer allows the approval of brand new petrol stations in such areas.  The application as presented in 2016 was for a brand-new fuel station and did not refer to any relocation.

The application has prompted objections from the local council on the grounds that this would eat up part of the precious little rural land left in the area.

The council is arguing that the earmarked site is less than 500 metres away from the nearest station, in breach of a specific planning policy.

Objections were made by the Environment Resources Authority, which said there was no overriding justification for further loss of agricultural land.