Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri is being tight-lipped on whether the government will be taking action to remove illegalities at the J. Gaffarena Service Station, in Qormi.

The petrol station had been closed down by the then Malta Environment and Planning Authority in 2008 after being found to contain a number of illegalities. It reopened in March 2014 after an agreement was reached with the Labour government.

According to public declarations made by former planning parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon, the Gaffarenas had acceded to a legal agreement giving them a 36-month ‘temporary clearance’ to either reverse the illegalities at their fuel station or obtain the necessary sanctioning.

Last month, the Planning Authority unanimously turned down an application to sanction the illegalities. 

The J. Gaffarena Service Station, in Qormi.

Asked last week whether any action was being taken to enforce the agreement following the elapse of the 36-month period, Dr Schembri said the government was seeking advice.

“The government does things at its pace. The most important thing is that we do things legally. We go by the law and that is the most important aspect. We will take advice from our legal people and move accordingly,” Dr Schembri said.

Pushed further to say whether the legal agreement would be enforced, Dr Schembri once against insisted the government did things “at its own pace”.

Asked why the government had resisted calls to publish the agreement signed with the Gaffarenas, Dr Schembri said she had no problem publishing agreements but she had to act on the advice of her consultants.

When asked what was the advice with regard to the publication of the Gaffarena agreement, Dr Schembri replied: “I think I have said enough.”

During last month’s Planning Authority hearing, it emerged that the Gaffarenas had made no changes to the fuel station site, expecting that they would be sanctioned following a change to the fuel stations policy by the Planning Authority.

The board refused the Gaffarenas’ arguments and said the illegal structures at the fuel station were still against the law.

The petrol station is owned by developer Joe Gaffarena, father of Marco Gaffarena, who benefitted from a lucrative Valletta land expropriation deal that had led to Dr Falzon’s resignation.

jacob.borg@timesofmalta.com