Quite a number of people turned up at the Mepa boardroom for what was meant to be a hearing regarding the application for a petrol station on the Salina Road.

Actually, more people turned up for this application than for the other vexed application regarding the Nadur belvedere, ranging from environmentalists to lawyers.

But they were all destined to be disappointed.

At the beginning of the sitting, Mepa chairman Vince Cassar read out a court order banning the board from deciding on the application until the Court had completed its consideration of the case.

The Court allowed the Mepa board to consider the application, that is without deciding it.

But Mepa chairman Vince Cassar chose to advise the board to refrain from considering the application until after the court decision. The board agreed with this suggestion.