The guidelines were drawn up in view of the need for such facilities for the amount of heavy vehicles and boats the Maltese people own.

They were drawn up following a study on the requirements and it transpired that these were, in fact, needed for these storage facilities.

Strategic planning directorate head John Gauci explained that Mepa was receiving several requests for facilities to store heavy vehicles, trailers, plant machinery, buses, coaches and hard standing facilities for boats which are not within an enclosed building.

He said that according to the study conducted before the guidelines were drawn up, there are around 8,000 vehicles with a capacity of over five tonnes and 1,181 road tractors, excluding plant machinery. These all need to be kept somewhere.

On boats, Mr Gauci said there are 4,295 registered boats but only 1,635 registered berthing sites. He said Mepa has long been receiving requests for space for sea vessels that have been brought out of the water for the winter months.

Moreover, he said Malta has 513 registered buses, 150 coaches and nearly 450 trailers.

These all need space to be kept, he said, adding that talks with the Malta Transport Authority led to the idea of having regional depots for buses and coaches.

Mr Gauci said the guidelines are now placed at the scrutiny of the public during the six-week public consultation process which closes on 28 June.

Answering questions, Mepa director of planning Godwin Cassar said no sites have been proposed yet except those indicated in the local plans.

He said it will not be a free-for-all situation, and storage facilities will be monitored closely.