Gżira mayor Conrad Borg Manché has expressed his disappointment after his appeal to stop the moving of a petrol station from Manoel Island to one of Gżira’s only green spaces was dismissed.

“I expected much better from the tribunal instead of a justification of this decision based on old policies and road plans that today make absolutely no sense,” he said in a Facebook post.

Yesterday, the Environmental and Planning Review Tribunal dismissed an appeal put forward by the local council to stop the relocation of the Manoel Island petrol station to a 930 square meters site in the Council of Europe gardens.

“It will take up part of the garden, and will be next to the only open green space in the most populated locality in Malta,” continued Borg Manché.

“It was already crazy and illegal to put a pump on the foreshore let alone in a garden next to the only green space for our children.”

The application to relocate the fuel station was made in an attempt to widen the road and remove the bottleneck at the end of the Strand as one approaches the Manoel Island bridge.

Two oak trees and an olive tree will be uprooted as a result of the proposed move. In their stead, five oak trees and 10 olive trees will be planted in the garden.

The Gżira local council is expected to reconvene in order to discuss the decision taken by the EPRT and explore possible remedies.

“The local council had unanimously decided to make this appeal and to this end an urgent meeting will be convened to discuss the decision taken by EPRT as well as to determine the next step and other remedies the law provides us,” ended Borg Manché.

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