An offer to debate a revised fuel stations policy in parliament still stands, the Nationalist Party said on Saturday, despite the government having so far chosen to turn it down.

In a statement, the PN said that it had written Environment Minister Jose’ Herrera a letter asking him to explain, to parliament’s environmental committee why a revised fuel stations policy had yet to come into force.

Details of the revised policy were first unveiled in April, after Dr Herrera had pledged, in January,  to amend a controversial existing policy document which has led to a series of applications to develop massive fuel stations on ODZ land, sometimes within a stone’s throw of each other.

Five months have passed since the revised policy was first revealed, but its implementation has stalled. 

Last April, activists angered by the policy halted a PA meeting at which one such application was being heard.

READ: Our target remains the PA, not the police - activists

They returned to PA offices this week and were unceremoniously dragged out of the building by Rapid Intervention Unit police officers called to the scene.

In its statement, the PN said that the government was doing its utmost to avoid debating the revised policy and had chosen to turn down a request to do so made by PN MPs Jason Azzopardi and Marthese Portelli, who serve as party spokespersons for the environment and planning respectively.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.