After MaltaToday's photos, Planning Authority orders removal of diesel tanks from garage

Diesel tanks inside a garage in a residential area of Mosta have to be dismantled by tomorrow, on orders of the Planning Authority, which sent inspectors on site after this newspaper revealed the owners were storing diesel in the garage to fill up coaches and minivans nearly every day.

Last Sunday, MaltaToday published photographic evidence that fuel bowsers were frequently dispensing diesel into tanks in a garage in Triq il-Kultellaz in Mosta. The owners – Silverstar Garage and Car Rentals – were then using the diesel to fill up the fuel tanks of minivans and coaches on a daily basis.

Photographs taken on site clearly show bowsers dispensing diesel into the garage, with vans and coaches lining up behind to await their turn at the pump. Other photographs show a man filling up the tanks of the minivans and coaches from a fuel pump inside the garage.

Residents contacted MaltaToday to complain about the possible health and safety risks the fuel storage could pose to residents. They also complained about the constant flow of traffic in the street.

Silverstar owner Rennie Zammit denied the company had a reservoir or pump in the garage and that they only kept a very small volume of diesel in reserve for the vehicle rental fleet. “There are no pumps. We only store a very small volume to use in case of emergency, at night for our own vehicles,” he said when first contacted. “And even so, diesel is no danger at all, it cannot catch fire, this is not oil or petrol,” he had said. “We do not have any petrol in the garage, none at all.”

But the PA has now confirmed that fuel tanks were indeed found during a site inspection last Monday, during which the garage owner removed the fuel from the tanks: “The owner has been instructed to remove the tanks from the garage within a week.”