Attard mega petrol pump: gold rush uprooting agricultural land

A mega petrol station covering 3,000sq.m of abandoned farmland on Mdina Road is located just 395m away from the Pit Stop petrol station in Attard.

But a policy that regulates the siting of these ‘ODZ’ petrol pumps says such installations must be within 500 metres of each other.

And yet, the same Planning Authority policy says fuel stations “on opposite sides of the road” from each other can be considered favourably, if it can be demonstrated that traffic on the opposite lane from the existing fuel service station cannot easily access it.

Indeed, applicant Ludwig Camilleri correctly points out that there are no fuel service stations along Mdina Road on the same side of the carriageway in the direction of Rabat to Valletta; and that this would serve drivers travelling to Valletta and Attard from Dingli, Rabat, Siġġiewi and Żebbuġ, or from the National Stadium.

But to be sure, the road infrastructure in Attard was altered to provide this carriageway a diverted route that allows motorists safe crossing into the Pit Stop petrol station.

“The fact that the site has been abandoned and allowed to degrade over the years and most of the soil lost or removed, does not diminish its agricultural potential” EIA

High agricultural potential

Environment Impact Studies conclude that the development will have a major negative impact due to the permanent loss of six protected trees, including an olive tree and five Aleppo trees. The pine trees will have to be removed to provide access into and out of the proposed petrol station.

The developers are proposing landscaping all around the site, but the EIA says the planting will not adequately compensate for the loss of these mature trees, and that the potential for the relocation of the protected trees is very limited given their maturity.”

The western portion of the site is already planted with vines, forming part of the adjacent Delicata vineyard, which the applicant says is encroaching on his land.

The EIA also says the petrol pump would see a “permanent loss of agricultural land”, because although uncultivated, it could be used to grow vines or other crops.

Indeed an agricultural survey identifies the land as being of high potential agricultural value.

“The fact that the site has been abandoned and allowed to degrade over the years and most of the soil lost or removed, does not diminish its agricultural potential,” the EIA says, which also throws a light on the negative impact of illegal development in the 1980s.

“Research undertaken as part of the land cover and agriculture survey suggests that this material has been there for at least two decades, and the planning history for the area refers to enforcement action in the late-1980s involving the demolition of illegal development”.

The impact on geological resources is also considered to be of major negative significance since it involves the extraction of approximately 4,000 cubic metres of rock.

The renditions show how the 3,000 square metre fuel pump, located outside development zones, will look from Mdina Road

From Msida to Mdina Road

The Attard council has raised numerous objections, saying there are already three fuel service stations from Mdina Road to Saqqajja in Rabat, one of them being the Pit Stop fuel station. “Therefore, is there a need for another fuel service station on a relatively small stretch of road?” the councillors ask.

The fuel station would relocate an already decommissioned urban station on Valley Road in Msida.

That licence was transferred in 2014 to Luqa Developments, a company owned by Camilleri, the son of Pio Camilleri, the close aide of late Labour minister Lorry Sant.

Camilleri had already requested a permit for a petrol station in Salina, but the Planning Authority advised him that this would not be in line with “the intentions” of the fuel service stations rules. Moreover, the Salina petrol station would have impinged on an archaeological area which contains a number of features of heritage value.

Camilleri again was rebuffed on a proposal to move the fuel service station to San Gwann, but was advised against over “archaeological issues”.

Then in May 2017, the PA replied favourably to the Mdina Road application, saying the proposal was in line with fuel service station policy rules on condition that environmental impact studies show any environmental issues being resolved.

Originally, the land on Mdina Road had been identified for a private cemetery for 1,000 graves – which itself hit a snag when a new planning policy banned the development of new cemeteries.