The University of Malta is seeking an injunction against the owners of a fuel station, which it says operates on land it owns in flagrant breach of a stop order and poses a serious danger to nearby student facilities.
The university authorities have already filed proceedings before the civil courts to evict the fuel station owners from the site facing Triq Mikiel Anton Vassalli Road, Msida.
The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) had, in June 2019, issued a stop order against JOEM Services Station Limited, the company running the business, to stop its storage and distribution operations that were taking place without the necessary permits.
The way the station was being operated meant that its activities breached environmental laws and regulations on the control of emissions by volatile organic materials.
The service station was not equipped with adequate structures and storage facilities, thus posing “great danger”. That was why the ERA issued the stop order, claimed the university in its application.
The issue concerns two plots of land that became university property by means of two public deeds signed in March 1964 and September 1977.
The transfer to the university followed an expropriation notice issued by the governor of Malta in 1961 so the property would be used for educational purposes. Then, in 1995, a fuel station on Regional Road, operated through C. Vella and Sons Limited, had to be relocated to make way for the Santa Venera tunnels project.
That site on Regional Road was expropriated and the university was informed by the Roads Department that the Vella fuel station would be relocated to the two plots belonging to the university. Permits for the new service station were issued on July 11, 1996.
However, unlike Vella, who was compensated for his expropriated land on Regional Road, the university never received any compensation. In fact, it never signed any form of contract to transfer the land and an attempt to regularise the situation in 1996 never led anywhere.
In 2012, the service station was sold to JOEM. The university is arguing JOEM is operating the station on land it does not own and which is not being used for educational purposes as originally intended.
Moreover, although the service station had been targeted by a stop order by ERA five years ago, it had still continued to operate. Such a “flagrant breach” was exposing the university, as owner of the two plots in question, to fines and damages and potential court action by ERA. That meant the university could be hit by daily maximum penalties of €150, leaving it with no option but to seek an injunction.
The two requirements for such an injunction subsisted, argued the university’s lawyers. The institution had a prima facie interest as owner of the plots. There was also the risk of irremediable prejudice since the university gym and sports complex were close to the service station.
Since the station owners were facing possible eviction, they would have no intention of addressing shortcomings in such manner as to avert the risk of some disaster, argued the university.
Lawyers Carlos Bugeja and Jurgen Micallef signed the application.