Petrol station owner incensed at decision

The owner of a Xewkija petrol station is incensed after the Environment and Planning Tribunal rejected his application for a car wash on site, despite granting 40 similar initiatives. Joe Xuereb of Attard Petrol Station expressed disappointment that the case was thrown out after eight years because “we didn’t break the law”. Last month, the tribunal rejected two appeals filed by Attard Petrol Station to build a car wash and extend an already existing canopy because of the “illegal location” of petrol pumps in the middle of an area earmarked as a service road. The access and exit to the arterial road is considered to be a traffic hazard. However, Mr Xuereb contested this claim, saying that in the stretch of road from Għajnsielem to Victoria, there were five petrol stations – including his – built in the same way. He pointed out that the petrol station had been granted a permit in 1985, way before any service road had been earmarked for the area. “More than 40 permits for car washes in Malta and Gozo were granted – one of these just three houses down from us, and ours was refused? Why?” he asked. The petrol station, which was built in 1985, was later granted a permit in 1999 to...