Environment NGOs protested this afternoon that a 2006 outline permit which formed the basis for the controversial full permit granted this week for a new petrol station outside the development zone in Mgarr had actually expired.

Furthermore, the development permit covers an area two-and-a-half times larger than the outline permit and also includes an access road over fields which was not applied for in the outline permit. 

Ramblers Association, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Malta Organic Agriculture Movement and Friends of the Earth (Malta) called for the immediate rescinding of the permit, which will see a petrol station in the heart of Mgarr transferred to a large pristine ODZ site on Zebbiegh Road.

"The Outline Permit for a petrol station on this site expired on the 28th March 2011. Since the MEPA Chairman stated that the full permit was granted principally because MEPA was ‘committed’ by the outline permit, the NGOs maintain that MEPA has no alternative but to immediately revoke the full permit since the outline permit was no longer valid when the full permit was granted," the organisations said.

Furthermore, they argued, full permits had been refused in the past, even when the outline permits were still valid, let alone in this case. 

"This decision confirms the conviction that it was a big mistake to entrust the protection of the environment to the Planning Authority, which continues to give precedence to planning considerations informed by at times unscrupulous commercial interest," the NGOs said.

They pointed out that alternative sites, already disturbed and obtainable around Mgarr, were not considered simply because the selected site was owned by the developer.

Furthermore, it was the duty of the Authority to come down heavily on the applicant for not heeding an Enforcement Order that was served on him for years on end, making a mockery of the Authority’s authority. He even lost an appeal on the issue.

"Instead of MEPA taking direct action to remove the illegallity (a scrap yard), this abuse that has ruined the  landscape both visually and ecologically for years, has now earned the abuser a permit to desecrate no less than 2500 square meters of virgin land. Again, is it this sort of ominous reasoning with which the Mepa Board decides the fate of ODZ sites?"

They insisted that the archaeological, hydrological and scenic importance of the location should have prompted a more thorough assessment of the  proposal, as well as a careful consideration of other relevant factors which have changed since 2006.

"How could the newly-appointed Environment Protection Director have given the project her blessing? Was she not aware of the existence of protected giren and trees on this site? Did she not know of the proximity to the Ghajn Rihana water catchment area? These factors on their own should have blocked this permit. But it seems that these considerations fade into insignificance in the face of that other major criterion: ODZ land comes cheap, especially when it is public land obtained through the Lands Department"

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