The allure of relocating

Abstract

Relocating from residential areas business premises that are potentially hazardous or detrimental to health, such as petrol stations, have in recent years been projected as a step in the right direction, since they improve the quality of life in the areas where they were formerly located. Such rationale has been used, for example, to push through the relocation of the petrol station from St Anne's Street, Floriana, to Ta' Buqana in Mosta, with the latter site being disproportionately larger, and including car-wash and dining facilities. Similarly, planning application PA 04720/03, which proposes the relocation of petrol station activities from a residential area in Birkirkara to a site in Valletta Road, Ghaxaq, that is licensed as a batching plant, seems at face value quite benign. One might argue that there is nothing contentious about such a proposal since, after all, petrol stations jar (to put it mildly) with residential areas. This would be true if the proposed development at the relocation site was faithful to the previous development, rather than involving a scaling-up of activities, as is being proposed at Ghaxaq. In fact, the proposal includes the construction of four tanks, some of which can be almost five storeys high.