Siggiewi pump relocation could be possible

The relocation of Siggiewi’s urban petrol pump to the village’s outskirts has overcome an obstacle for its new siting, despite the discredited fuel pump policy still under review.

The land outside development zones identified for the Mallia petrol station has now been deemed as being “not of good quality”, fulfilling one of the criteria of the policy regulating fuel stations and their relocation to larger areas outside village cores.

But a revised policy is still awaiting final approval from the government – one which excludes the development of petrol stations on agricultural land irrespective of the quality of the land, and which would apply to all pending applications, making the Siggiewi application a non-starter.

The Environment and Resources Authority has already warned that given that the Fuel Service Station Policy is currently under review “the [Siggiewi] proposal is considered premature”.

But in its comments on the application, the PA’s agriculture advisory committee said that while it “objects in principle” to any development on agricultural land that is unrelated to agriculture, it found the soil to be only “marginally suitable for agricultural production”, with the main limitations being “the moisture deficit and state of the soil”.

In view of this the committee concluded that “the land does not constitute good quality agricultural land”.

Transport Malta has also issued its clearance for the development.

The Mallia petrol station wants to move off the kerbside adjacent to the St Mary Chapel in the Siggiewi square, to a 1,600sq.m site along Mgr Mikiel Azzopardi road.

Architect and former PN environment minister, George Pullicino, who is representing the owners, justified the choice of the site due to its close proximity to a large disturbed area, which until a few years ago was an active quarry, and was consequently filled up and is now littered with debris or abandoned vehicles, abandoned machinery or other bulky refuse.

But the same report acknowledges that the site is within an agricultural zone which consists of “non-irrigated agricultural land with some citrus, pomegranate and olive trees.”

The local plan itself envisages the rehabilitation of the area in which the petrol station is being proposed through “environmental management plans”, yet the developers say that since the site lies on a main thoroughfare “it definitely is not really part of the rural environment which these plans were intended to address in a positive manner”.

The ERA has insisted that there is “no valid justification for the further loss of undeveloped rural land” to accommodate the development of “a significantly enlarged fuel station beyond the development zone boundary”. It also said the project will require an environmental impact assessment.