Activist group Moviment Graffitti has lambasted the Planning Authority for failing to review the Fuel Service Station Policy, releasing a damning video which shows the way proposed stations would be eating more environmental land.
This policy incentivises massive commercial complexes, under the guise of fuel stations, on agricultural and natural land designated as outside the development zones.
A year has passed from the Minister of the Environment’s declaration that the 2015 Fuel Service Station Policy is wrong and needs to be revised. In the meantime, Moviment Graffitti and other organisations have carried out many actions, including two at the PA’s premises, to demand the immediate revision of this policy.
Read: Police drag activists out of Planning Authority premises
Over 1,100 individuals have also sent an e-mail to the authorities expressing their outrage at this policy and at the PA’s inaction in changing it. It released a short video clip to highlight the PA’s inaction.
“It is baffling that the PA is taking such a ridiculously long time to carry out a simple change to the policy. Although the Environment and Resource Authority (ERA) completed its review in April, stating that the revised policy should not allow fuel stations on ODZ, the PA has not yet published for public consultation a draft of the revised policy,” the NGO said.
It is clear that the PA is taking everyone for a ride
It said PA chairman Johann Buttigieg stated in November that a draft of the reviewed policy was ready to be issued for public consultation. However, more than a month has passed and the policy remains unpublished.
“New applications for ODZ fuel stations continue to be submitted under this current, defective, policy. There are 16 applications for ODZ fuel stations, with four having been accepted already and the others still being processed, covering a total area equal to six times the Floriana Granaries,” it said.
“It is clear that the PA is taking everyone for a ride by dragging its feet and keeping the current policy in place, thus allowing a few developers to continue enriching themselves by building on ODZ,” the movement said.
Moviment Graffitti said that it was also concerned that the PA might use the public consultation process to continue postponing the revision of the policy by, for example, taking a very long time to come up with a final version of the revised policy after the consultation period closes.
“The PA should not only publish the reviewed policy for consultation immediately, but it should also establish a date for the entry into force of the final, revised policy,” the NGO said.
There are currently 16 applications for ODZ fuel stations. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier