It has been exactly two years since the Environment Minister promised to review a controversial fuel station policy, but the revised policy has yet to see the light of day.
Activist group Moviment Graffitti, which led the charge calling for the original policy to be scrapped, highlighted the interminable wait on Saturday, noting in a press statement that as the days ticked by, more applications for fuel stations continued to be submitted.
The activist group had already expressed incredulity about the protracted wait for a revised policy. Last March, the group had set up an online timer counting the days, hours and minutes since then-Environment Minister Jose Herrera had promised a revision.
At the time of writing, 737 days, 13 hours, nine minutes and 30 seconds had passed since that promise was made.
Why the policy revision?
The original fuel station policy had prompted outrage after activists showed how it was being used to turn small stations in urban areas into sprawling complexes on Outside Development Zone land of up to 3,000 square metres.
As anger bubbled, the government eventually said it would send the policy back to the drawing board.
The months piled up and in March 2019, Graffitti activists camped outside the PA offices in protest. At the time, Transport Minister Ian Borg promised to launch the revised policy for consultation the following month.
That revised policy – which activists say closes most, though not all, loopholes – has since gone through three different consultation stages. The third consultation stage ended in November but the policy remains inoperative.
The biggest winners of this state of affairs are those applying to develop fuel stations, Graffitti noted on Saturday.
With the revised policy still in draft form, new applications are being processed on the basis of the existing fuel station policy.
Graffitti cited the example of a fuel station in Siġġiewi which, according to its application, will be relocated and balloon in size from 160 square metres to 1,600 square metres.
“This land forms part of Wied Xkora, that the Planning Authority itself acknowledges, needs to be regenerated. We cannot understand how this massive development would in any way lead to the regeneration of this valley,” the activists said.
Rural Policy
Delays were also plaguing revisions to the Rural Policy, Moviment Graffitti said. The Rural Policy stipulates the conditions under which land in rural areas, such as ODZ, can be developed.
The revision was announced late last year and opened to a public consultation period. But before that consultation period ended, the minister told parliament that a senior legal expert was already writing up a new policy and would have a draft ready within weeks.
"Despite promises that this will be revised, this reform is taking place behind closed doors by the Dean of the Faculty of Law and we do not know whether any progress has been made, let alone when it will come into effect,” Graffitti said.