Don’t let a petrol station ruin a pristine field – NGOs

NGOs are criticising plans to relocate a petrol station from Mġarr square to a “pristine field”, a plan the planning authority has been recommended to approve.

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, the Malta Ramblers Association and Friends of the Earth said the move would just relieve one area of an eyesore and health hazard and inflict it on another. The site also happened to be an outside development zone (ODZ), they said.

The NGOs said the plans had been recommended for approval but were not justified, especially since other petrol stations existed in the area.

“How can the Environment Protection Division claim that a petrol station of 2,500 square metres, which includes a showroom for agricultural machinery, a car wash and a panel beater/sprayer, plus the opening of an access road through the back field will not have a visual impact?”

“Have we not learnt from the eyesore petrol stations at Attard, Buqana and Mellieħa ridge, all of which have irrevocably ruined areas of high landscape value like this one?”

The NGOs said the permit violated at least 10 policies of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

“How much longer are we going to see permits being justified on grounds of dubious outline permits issued prior to the Mepa reform, even when the proposed development is about two and a half times that approved in the outline permit?”

The NGOs said the project would destroy protected dry stone walls and stone corbelled huts known as giren and would reduce the catchment of a nearby reservoir.

The Mepa board will consider the application tomorrow.