Labour and Nationalist MPs outvoted on new MEPA board

The government and Opposition representatives on the newly-constituted MEPA board – Joe Falzon and Roderick Galdes – voted in favour of sanctioning the illegal extension of the GAF petrol station in Qormi, but were outvoted by chairman Austin Walker and seven other board members.

Apart from the two MPs, another two board members, Elena Borg Costanzi and Joe Vella, also voted in favour.

The board turned down the sanctioning of extension works to the petrol station because the illegalities on site were resulting in the further intensification of urbanization in an outside development zone. The illegal works at the petrol station belonging to Johann Gaffarena, on Luqa Road, Qormi included the construction of a first floor over and above the height permitted for the petrol station.

Labour MP and MEPA employee Roderick Galdes, who hails from Qormi, defended his vote in favour of the application, insisting that there were sufficient reasons for MEPA to approve the development.

While expressing his disapproval at the way the developer preferred to sanction the illegal development, instead of waiting for a permit, Galdes insisted that one should take in consideration the location of the development and “the improvement to the infrastructure and the investment made”.

He pointed out that the area is on the edge of an ODZ, it is already committed for development and one can find buildings all along the same road. The Labour MP laments the lack of a planning policy on policy regulating petrol stations.

Galdes insists that petrol stations cannot be constructed in residential areas because of their impact on health and safety of resident and therefore have to be located ODZ.

Galdes also refers to various permits issued to similar projects by MEPA.

“Various two storey petrol station have been approved by MEPA in ODZ areas in the past five years because the these require ancillary services which require space.”

Galdes’s vote contrasted with the Labour media’s relentless reports on this issue. It was Labour weekly Kulhadd which in October 2009 revealed that Enemalta had supplied the petrol station with electricity, despite the lack of a compliance certificate. The petrol station was subsequently closed.

On his part, government representative Joe Falzon pointed out that the Planning Directory, on whose advice MEPA relies before taking a decision, had referred to the lack of a policy to regulate this development.

He also pointed out that the directorate was willing to approve extensions made at basement level, but disagreed with the use of the first floor as a boardroom and a space for ‘storage, shelving and marketing activities’.

But according to Falzon the applicant had, through his lawyer, offered to change the use of the second floor to one ancillary to the petrol station and bind himself to do so by a public deed. “I made it clear in the meeting that although the petrol station was approved in December 2006, the applicant should be fined for subsequent illegalities according to the law.”

During the meeting a prominent role was taken by MEPA board newcomer and legal mind and former European Court of Human Rights jJudge Giovanni Bonello, who countered the applicants’ lawyers’ argument that the development should be approved because of past precedents, by arguing that while precedent applied to legal developments “it did not apply to illegalities”.