Maghtab fuel station gets green light

The Planning Board has granted permission for the relocation of an existing fuel station in the urban area of Mosta to a site in Maghtab.

The application was the same one presented in December of last year, which found resistance within planning board. 

The Board now cited that the proposed fuel station was in line with the Fuel Service Station policy which was approved in April 2015.   

The development will include five fuel station dispensers, a car wash and tyre service facility and shop. The Service Station will be constructed on a triangular parcel of land between Triq is- Salina and Trejqet l-Arznu where currently two abandoned farmhouses are present.

The permit stipluates that prior to the start of operation of this new fuel station the site where the current facility in Mosta is operational must be decommissioned and decontaminated.

In his blog, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Carmel Cacopardo said that many boards members who had not attended the previous meeting, attended today, and even changed their decision on the vote.

Cacopardo said that Labour MP Clayrton Bartolo, who had voted against the petrol station back in December, voted in favour in the newest meeting. Nationalist MP Ryan Callus also wasn’t present in the earlier meeting, but voted in favour today.

The Board also refused planning permission for the development of a two storey terraced house within the 100 meter buffer zone of the protected heritage site of Għar Għerduf in Kercem, Gozo. In October 2000, the Planning Authority had given the archaeological site of Għar Għerduf a Class A category status.

Last June, on the same site, the Board had withdrawn a permit after it concluded that an error in the designation of the protected site had led to the incorrect assessment of the planning application. This had a sound bearing on the final decision taken by the Planning Commission.