A fuel station policy revision that has been in the pipeline since January last year will be on the agenda of a parliamentary committee meeting, scheduled for Monday.
This development follows remarks made last month by Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi who called on the government to wrap up this process, meant to tighten controls on the issuance of fuel station permits.
His call was made amid criticism that the delay to approve and implement the new policy was playing in the hands of developers as a host of pending applications were being decided under the lenient existing policy.
In view of this, Dr Azzopardi last week requested Labour MP Alex Muscat who chairs the Parliamentary Committee for the Environment and Planning to debate this policy.
In a vague reply, Mr Muscat had remarked that the committee would only be convened upon the request of the “competent authorities”.
However, Times of Malta is informed that, last Tuesday, the Planning Authority notified the committee that it had published an update to the policy which had been issued for public consultation last April.
The committee would only be convened upon the request of the competent authorities
In view of this, it was decided to add this item to the agenda of the next committee meeting which was due to meet next Monday to debate other matters.
Issued last April, the revised policy states will apply to pending applications. However, prior to coming into force, it still needs to be approved in Parliament.
Though this policy had been described as an improvement on the existing one which had been introduced in 2015, NGOs such as Moviment Graffiti had said that it was riddled with loopholes.
Under the proposed policy the maximum footprint of a fuel station has been reduced from 3,000 to 1,000 square metres, but various exceptions may apply. Similarly, the policy increases restrictions on applications for fuel stations on areas outside development zones, but it does not include an outright ban.
In the updated version, dated July 29, an amendment was made to a clause dealing with applications for fuel stations on agricultural land.
While the original version said no facility should be located on this type of land, this has been changed to “agricultural land as defined by the Agriculture Advisory Committee”.
Furthermore, despite indications that under the new policy no new fuel station would be allowed within 1.5 kilometres of a similar facility – up from the 500 metre limit of the existing legislation – the proposed policy has no such restriction at all.