Land speculators are buying relatively cheap agricultural land and turning it into a rural commercial goldmine through a flawed Fuel Station Policy, Partit Demokratiku has stressed.

Once a fuel station application is approved and rural land is disturbed, there is no enforcement to ensure that such a project is completed, it said in a statement.

Malta boasts of 77 fuel stations, eight of which are in Gozo. The Planning Authority is presently screening four other applications which were submitted before 2015.

Partit Demokratiku noted that a Burmarrad fuel station was recently approved in breach of the 2015 Fuel Service Station Policy, as the stipulated 500 metre distance which is designated to separate one station from another was not upheld.

The Fuel Service Station Policy allows for the screening of new stations or the relocation of stations from urban areas to Outside Development Zone land, as long as the site is designated non-agricultural and gives preference to locations designated industrial areas, SME sites, areas of containment or open storage areas.

Another application proposes the demolition of an existing farmhouse and the construction of a fuel station with ancillary services, garages and cafeteria over an area of 27,000 square metres when the policy restricts that the footprint of such a development should not exceed 3,000 square metres.

"PA is repeatedly irreversibly damaging our natural capital and the Environment Resource Authority is toothless. Land speculators are buying relatively cheap agricultural land and turning it into a rural commercial goldmine with no public domain scruples, utilizing such a policy and even others. PD is of the opinion that such services should be pulled down and the sites restored to their original natural state."