I was present for both public sessions of the Planning Authority Board’s meetings to discuss the planning application for a petrol station on Salini Road, Magħtab.
The first meeting, on 7 December, was attended by eight members of the Board. At the meeting on 11 January, however, an additional five members made an effort and were present. These additional five members voted in favour of the application, but they had not followed the detailed public discussion held on 7 January, as is their duty.
At the first meeting, two of the Board members publicly indicated their intention to vote against the application but, at the second meeting, both changed their mind and decided to vote in favour. However, no public explanation was forthcoming as to what had prompted them to change sides.
The Planning Authority Board includes two Members of Parliament: Ryan Callus (PN) and Clayton Bartolo (PL). Both of them consider it to be desirable to have more petrol stations and both voted in favour of the Magħtab petrol station. Ryan Callus was clearly observed raising his hand very reluctantly to vote in favour of the development application: apparently he wanted those present to note that he was not sure of what he was doing.
More worrying was Clayton Bartolo’s behaviour. He had already publicly indicated his opposition to giving permission for the petrol station on 7 December. However, last Thursday he switched sides and voted in favour. Obviously, he has every right to vote in whichever way he chooses, but he owes the public an explanation for his change of heart. No such explanation was forthcoming.
Of the 14 members of the Planning Authority Board, 13 are regular members and the additional member is an ad hoc member representing the Local Council of the locality involved – in this case, Naxxar. Eight members of the Board were present for both meetings. Five turned up only for the second meeting. The 14th member of the Board, although present for both meetings, left the room as soon as the subject of the petrol station came up for discussion on both occasions! Clearly he did not want to participate in this latest planning farce.
This is the third new petrol station to be approved by the Planning Authority in a short period of time: approval for the Magħtab petrol station came immediately after approval of those at Marsaskala and Burmarrad in the past few weeks.
Do we need so many petrol stations?
Last September, the Prime Minister announced that the government would shortly carry out a consultation exercise to determine the cut-off date beyond which all new cars purchased would have to be electric or similar vehicles. This signified one thing: that soon we will start the count-down leading to no more petrol and/or diesel cars on our roads. Bearing this policy declaration by the Prime Minister leads to one inevitable question: why do we need more petrol stations? Each new petrol station gobbles up approximately 3,000 square metres of land.
A big thank-you to Ryan and Clayton.