Heritage Cases

Leslie Community Filling Station (Pty) Ltd., previously known as Leslie MBT Station (Pty) Ltd entered into a formal lease agreement with landowner, Leslie Sentrum CC, after the initial lease agreement expired by effluxion of time, on condition to upgrade the already existing filling station and in exchange get the right to operate the already existing fuel station as a going business. The existing filling station came into operation before March 1998 and had a combined capacity of 115 000 litres = 115m³ (cubic metres) of fuel. The new owner proposed to keep the capacity of the fuel storage facility to below the threshold of 80m³ and to use the existing footprint of the old facility. The station was revamped and the old fuel tanks replaced by new tanks that comply to the latest technology and the South African National Standards (SANS) for the Petroleum Industry: SANS 10089-3:1999* SABS 089-3:1999. The South African National Standards (SANS/SABS) Part 3, applicable to the Petroleum Industry and in particular to the installation of underground storage tanks, pumps/dispensers and pipework at service stations and consumer installations, is applicable and was complied with. The replacement of the tanks, fuel lines and containment slab were contracted to Unitrade 549 (Pty) Ltd trading as Sihlangene Construction. The revamp was halted as a result of the Covid 19 Pandemic and in terms of the regulations relating to Covid 19 published in terms of the Disaster Management Act at the end of March 2020 and only resumed in May 2020. The scope of work was to install tanks below the threshold of 80m³. After the revamp was completed and in preparation to activate the filling station it came to the knowledge of Leslie Community Filling Station (Pty) Ltd that the combined capacity of the underground fuel tanks exceeded the threshold capacity of 80m³ in that it is 83m³ made up by 2 x 30m³ and 1 x 23m³ tanks. It now transpired that during the initial Covid 19 restrictions, imposed by the regulations relating to Covid 19 in terms of the Disaster Management Act, the availability of underground fuel tanks with a capacity below 20m³ were not available and the contractor was supplied with 2 x 30m³ and 1 x 23m³ underground fuel tanks by the supplier and same were installed. This application is therefore for rectification of the unlawful expansion of the filling station. In addition, it is for authorisation of the expansion of the existing facilities for the storage of fuel and related uses. The combined capacity of the fuel tanks will not exceed 500 cubic metres. Leslie Community Filling Station (Pty) Ltd. plans to expand on the existing facilities and the existing storage tanks on site (2 x 30m³, and 1 x 23m³) by adding additional tanks up to a combined fuel storage capacity of 175m³ over a phased period. The applicant proposes to construct an additional 2 x 46m³ tanks. The total combined storage capacity on site will thus not exceed 500m³.