The ‘temporary clearance’ granted to the partly illegal Gaffarena fuel station in Qormi is about to elapse.
In March 2014, the Planning Authority granted the J. Gaffarena Fuel Station clearance to operate for three more years on the strict condition that the facility’s illegalities would be removed or sanctioned. Otherwise, the station would be closed down.
The Planning Authority has now scheduled a public hearing for Thursday in which a decision will be taken on Mr Gaffarena’s application to sanction. The application was submitted back in April 2014 but the authority left it in the pipeline until this week.
A report submitted by the case officer is recommending outright refusal as no changes whatsoever have been made to the illegal structures in place and the development still goes against various planning policies.
“Despite the fact that the Gaffarenas were given a unique chance to regularise their illegalities, they didn’t even bother to make minor changes,” a senior PA member told this newspaper.
“All the illegalities in 2014 and before are still in place and it is impossible, under normal circumstances, for the board to approve this application.”
Despite the factthat the Gaffarenas were given a unique chance to regularise their illegalities, they didn’t even bother to make minor changes
According to the agreement signed in March 2014 and exposed by the Times of Malta, the Gaffarenas were given a three-year temporary licence to operate the ‘legal’ parts of the development. This meant that while they could sell fuel and operate a car wash, they could not use the basement and a whole first floor office space which were built illegally.
In order to safeguard its rights, the Planning Authority had asked the Gaffarenas to deposit a €500,000 bid bond which would be used to enforce its order in case illegalities persisted beyond the three-year period.
The PA justified the issue of a temporary clearance as a one-time chance to enable the Gaffarenas to “sanction the parts not according to present permits”. It added that in case they failed to do so within 36 months, “the bank guarantee would be forfeited and the operations halted”.
Asked to state its position now that the three years are up with the illegal structures still in place, a spokesman for the PA referred this newspaper to next Thursday’s crucial decision.
Pressed to state whether the PA would close down the station if the board refused to approve the application, the spokesman did not reply.
Located on the outskirts of Qormi, the J. Gaffarena Service Station was sealed off by PA officials in 2008 when the developer went beyond the approved planning permission obtained two years earlier.
After the station defied an enforcement order and opened for business, PA officials returned to the site in September 2009, sealing off its entrance and once again closed it down.
However, things changed after March 2013, when the law was amended. Just a year into Labour’s administration, the illegal station restarted operations once it had obtained the temporary clearance.
The PN has always maintained that this was a pre-electoral agreement between Labour and the Gaffarena family.
Prime Minster Joseph Muscat denies there was any such deal, although he admits he had met the Gaffarenas before the election.
The same family was later involved in the Old Mint Street scandal which forced Michael Falzon to resign as a parliamentary secretary.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com