A proposal to build a petrol station in Magħtab is considered to be unacceptable by the planning authority’s environment directorate.

The site earmarked for the fuel station is in an area of mainly industrial use but the Environment Protection Directorate said it was “unacceptable from an environmental point of view given it is located in a predominantly open and undeveloped rural area”.

The petrol station would also involve excessive land take-up, the directorate said in its recommendations for the project’s environment impact report.

The report, compiled for the man behind the project, Paul Abela of Abel Energy, forms part of a planning application to demolish two derelict farmhouses and build a fuel station with an electric car charging station, car wash, shop, car mechanic workshop, stores and a parking lot that would take 17 cars.

The site is a triangular-shaped piece of land in Triq is-Salina and Trejqet l-Arznu, Naxxar, near the T’Alla w Ommu hill, covering an area of 3,593 square metres.

The directorate also highlighted the lack of an approved comprehensive policy framework regulating the development of fuel stations, setting a limit on how many were “really justified”.

Keeping this in mind, the project was “premature” and the directorate objected to further “open-ended or ad hoc commitments” for new or extended petrol stations outside scheme. The proposed site “is not a designated area considered potentially suitable for accommodating a fuel service station in the Draft Fuel Service Stations Policy 2014,” the directorate said.

The project report also listed cultural heritage features within the site’s footprint, including two late 19th to early 20th century farmhouse complexes and a rubble wall enclosing the site. The farmhouses and the wall would have to be demolished.

The environment directorate noted that the report described these as having “limited cultural significance” and their loss as being minor.

Supervised works by archaeologists was suggested to protect any potential finds in the area, described by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage as “archaeologically sensitive”.

Excavating stone to build the fuel tanks would also have an impact, while the impact on the landscape and visual amenity was also flagged in the report.