The Planning Authority will next Thursday process yet another fuel station application, this time in Luqa, and the Partit Demokratiku is bracing itself for another approval.

Read: Objections to ODZ fuel station in Luqa

“It is indeed strange how both PL and PN’s Planning Authority representatives vote in favour of such developments when the country’s national interest and vision dictates otherwise. PD is for a moratorium until the Environment and Resources Authority publishes its report and the policy is changed by PA,” the party said in a statement.

It listed the various projects currently being considered by the Parliamentary Permanent Committee on Environment and Development, which is said had become inundated with thorny planning issues shelved from one meeting to another, “without having the chance to submit recommendations to Parliament”.

One of the controversies is the Tuna Fish Farming Aquaculture Report as requested by PA in 2017 to verify whether a temporary site situated in the Northern coastal waters was suitable for blue-fin tuna fish farming. This has not as yet been concluded even though the number of cages has increased from 12 to 22, it said, warning that by end of May tuna would be caught from open seas in nets and brought for fattening in designated pens.

“Again it seems that both PL and PN have protected turf in this matter,” it said.

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