I recently toured the south of the island with a group of friends from overseas and I suggested that we include Siġġiewi in our itinerary. I got to know the village many years ago when I was working on local plans at the Planning Authority. I know it as a quiet village with a lot of charm and an architecture that is typical of Maltese rural villages.

Siġġiewi’s main square, Pjazza San Nikola, is particularly charming because of many features: the façade of the main church, the ground sloping away from the main church, its large L-shape, two small chapels lower down in the piazza and the typical townhouse façades in Maltese globigerina. The statue of St Nicholas acts as a visual focus within the piazza and is a reminder of the village’s rich traditions. Beyond the central piazza, the surrounding narrow winding roads are pleasant to walk along.

Our visit to Siġġiewi’s main piazza proved to be underwhelming. It was devoid of people. Despite the attractive streetscapes, the most dominant features were the parked cars and the occasional car speeding through the piazza. The disappointment was made complete because of cars queuing at the fuel service station located in the piazza. The station is visually incongruous adjoining the quaint little Kappella ta’ Santa Marija. Clearly Siġġiewi’s potential for tourism remains untapped.

A development application has been submitted for the relocation of the petrol station away from the piazza to the bypass on the town outskirts. The proposed relocation is meeting with mixed reactions. 

Most townspeople are well aware of the need to relocate the petrol station.

Many understand that this will make for a significantly improved Siġġiewi village core and, at the same time, making it much more convenient for motorists. 

On the other hand, there are concerns on how the new petrol station will affect some residents along the Siġġiewi bypass.  A closer look at the project description statement reveals that the concerns have been somewhat inflated. Objectors note that the site is in an agricultural zone. 

The time is ripe for a tourism policy that spreads tourism activity and encourages more tourism in the south of Malta

The project’s PDS notes, however, that the site is very close to a large disturbed area which, until a few years ago, was an active quarry. It was filled up with construction waste and is now littered with debris and abandoned machinery, thus diminishing the area’s agricultural value. 

Air pollution is another concern raised by objectors. On pollution, the counter argument is that, nowadays, new fuel service stations are required to install equipment that eliminates fuel emissions and leakages. In any case, the fuel station relocation will eliminate a source of pollution in the main piazza as the existing station operates with dated equipment. Objectors suggested that the fuel station be relocated to an industrial area, but there are none in the vicinity of Siġġiewi. 

The PDS notes that other sites for the relocated petrol station were considered. 

The owners have declared their intention to continue to service the Siġġiewi community, so the site selection exercise was limited to arterial roads around the town. At least three other sites were considered but the preferred site is considered to have the least impact and is most compliant with the relevant policy on the relocation of petrol stations. 

Apart from the Siġġiewi community, the piazza fuel station services most heavy vehicles that travel to and from the numerous soft stone quarries and construction yards around Siġġiewi. A fuel service station at the heart of a town inevitably generates considerable traffic to it.

The heavy vehicles, in particular, have a considerable negative impact on residents living along the roads leading to and from the piazza.

They also impact the urban conservation area as the stonework is more likely to deteriorate in restricted, polluted spaces. The station relocation is in line with the local plan’s primary objective “to minimise the impact caused by quarry-related traffic, keeping it away, where possible, from villages and built up areas”.

With the introduction of low-cost airlines in 2006, the number of tourists to Malta grew exponentially to 2.6 million. 

The time is ripe for a tourism policy that spreads tourism activity and encourages more tourism in the south of Malta in a manner that is sustainable and respectful of the area’s character. In addition to several important cultural and coastal attractions, the south possesses many village cores with authentic Maltese character, possibly the most notable being Żejtun, Marsaxlokk, Żurrieq and Siġġiewi.

Investment is needed to make the south of Malta more amenable to tourism activity, including investment in the enhancement of urban spaces in village cores. The proposed relocation of the fuel service station away from Siġġiewi’s main piazza will allow for unobstructed views of Kappella ta’ Santa Marija. More crucially, it will allow for the creation of a pedestrian space across the entire piazza – space that residents and tourists can enjoy.

John Ebejer is an urban planner and a University of Malta academic.