Moviment Graffitti appeals PA’s approval of massive Burmarrad ODZ fuel station

Moviment Graffitti has filed an appeal with the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) against the Planning Authority’s (PA) decision that will allow a small urban fuel pump to turn into a mega fuel station in Burmarrad.

“In this outrageous decision taken last April, the PA Board granted a permit for a tiny fuel pump of around 2sqm to be ‘relocated’ on 3,700sqm of good agricultural land. This development would include several retail facilities in addition to the fuel station,” Graffitti said.

The NGO has been at the forefront of the call for reform of the fuel policy rules that allow the relocation of urban fuel pumps to larger areas outside development zones.

The single petrol pump in Burmarrad will be relocated to a much larger site on ODZ land in the outskirts of the hamlet

“The PA Board has once again shown a total disregard for the policies regulating development in Malta. As if it were not bad enough that the 2015 Fuel Service Station Policy considers primarily developers’ interests rather than the environment, the PA Board chooses to blatantly ignore even the minimum and insufficient environmental safeguards contained in this policy,” Graffitti said.

The Fuel Service Station Policy clearly specifies that fuel stations are not to be relocated on “good agricultural land”.

The Burmarrad ODZ site has been certified by all the expert consultees and relevant authorities as “good agricultural land” and is currently used for agricultural purposes.

Moreover, the Policy states that ODZ fuel stations shall have a footprint not exceeding 3,000sqm. The approved fuel station’s size is 3,700sqm.

The appeal also includes a number of other grounds relating to the incomplete documentation available to the public prior and during the hearing, the PA Board not giving reasons for its decision and the Board’s disregard for policies such as the Rural Policy, the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development (SPED) and the Agricultural Policy.

“This decision by the PA Board is the perfect example of how the planning process in Malta is systematically leading to the destruction of our country in order to satisfy the greed of the few. To make sure that developers are totally accommodated, the PA Board shamelessly ignores even the feeble safeguards provided by the PA’s own defective policies,” Graffitti said.