Thanks to Minister Austin Gatt’s personal interest in Marsalforn there will finally be a clampdown on any illegal roadworks undertaken by local councils or any other entity. This means that war is being declared on all local councils and anyone else who thinks they can do what they jolly well please. And about time too.
He has given directives to the Transport Authority (ADT) that whenever local councils or any other body undertake works on public roads, or pavements, without the necessary permits from all authorities as required at law, the ADT will alert the Police Commissioner and ask him to stop the works immediately.
But are not these obvious requirements not already in place?
The authorities from which a permit is needed might include the ADT, MEPA, the Water Services Corporation and Enemalta. The joke is that sometimes these very entities are at odds with and ignore each other, or pass the buck from one to the other.
The ADT must issue a stop notice against whoever is carrying out the works and take the necessary steps to ensure that works are not resumed without official consent, and any public safety hazard should be rectified at the expense of the local council or person concerned.
There will also be hefty fines to pay for people who do not comply with the directives. Now it is all very well if the person concerned is forking out his own money for breaking the law, but when it comes to the local councils, we are the ones ending up paying for it, indirectly of course.
In his letter copied to the Police Commissioner, Dr Gatt referred to the Marsalforn works saying, “the public good is being sacrificed to suit private interests”. Never, I don’t believe it. This in the wake of so many worms crawling out of so many cans at MEPA and other entities.
The works in Marsalforn were being carried out by Zebbug (Gozo) local council without an ADT permit. Now is the PN mayor of Zebbug the same Charles Saliba, who has so far preferred not to comment on the matter, also the Gozo ADT Director?
The Minister said that it was evident that the sole purpose of the works was to enable a kiosk owner, who happened to be a Zebbug Labour local councillor, Victor Refalo, to have “more space on the pavement where to place tables and chairs”.
So what is going on? Does the Minister for Gozo, Giovanna Debono, have anything to say on this matter?
It is also evident to Austin Gatt that “these works will have great detrimental effect on the carriageway since with the narrowing of the road, the previous centre strip had been done away with; the road is barely wide enough for two cars to drive through”.
Now as far as I know, the current ethos is directed towards pedestrianisation and narrowing roads to slow cars down. Narrowing roads into only one lane is why drivers sometimes have to crawl for miles (kilometres does not sound right) behind a heavy, slow moving vehicle spouting foul fumes, but that is another story.
Let us today concentrate on pavements taken over by tables and chairs leaving no space for pedestrians by kiosk and café owners in Sliema and now edging into Gzira for instance. Which, by the way, has not seemed to concern any minister.
You might be sitting reading this paper in one such café. Look around you and see how much space is left for people perusing that part of the pavement as a thoroughfare.
Is not “the public good being sacrificed to suit private interests”, there?
Ah, but I suppose because the pavement was already there, no one will be able to do anything about it, even though there is also a health issue involved here. Because smoking is not allowed in buildings, people smoke at the pavement tables, so anyone passing through this ‘public’ thoroughfare has no option but to swallow the smoke, including children in pushchairs.
Airflow is also sometimes restricted because now wind and rain shields are also being erected on ‘public’ pavements by private entrepreneurs to attract more punters. The pedestrian public of course could always choose to walk in the traffic-ridden road.
Now to more escaping worms. You might remember that before the election there was a story about illegal yellow lines involving private interests, local councils, the ADT and MEPA.
The Sliema local council had said in a statement that “the painting of yellow lines/markings along the pavement in High Street, in front of the Palace Hotel, has been carried out on instructions of Mr Angelo Xuereb without seeking authorisation from ADT and from the Council.”
The Council said that this illegality had been reported both to the police and the Malta Transport Authority to take all necessary legal action.
However, AN Deputy Leader and former PN mayor Anglu Xuereb, responded that he got a letter from MEPA that “practically gave him a permit for a coach lay-by.” Xuereb said that the Sliema mayor had created five car spaces in front of his hotel and “MEPA told me to remove the parking spaces and instead put yellow lines.”
Now was the AN’s Angelo telling porkies, or was MEPA really playing a double game? And will the new directives stop these ridiculous situations?
We also had the reality farce where road signs freshly put up by the ADT in Zebbug (Malta), were removed shortly afterwards, allegedly by the local council.
Besides, a number of illegal reserved parking bays were ‘created’, later removed by the ADT but soon resurfaced.
Apparently, this game with one entity creating signs and the other removing them went on for a while. I am sure that similar occurrences take place elsewhere because I have seen it happen in my locality. All the expense of course coming out of our taxes.
Zebbug mayor Brian Bonnici had confirmed to MaltaToday that “we did certain works prior to the issue of permits because there are genuine cases. I had residents who although backed up their plea with a medical certificate their case was still ignored by the ADT.” He was talking about reserved parking spaces.
Now if the Zebbug mayor’s allegations are correct, I hope the Minister’s directive to the ADT to get tougher will be handled justly.
People who ignore the law and ride roughshod over public property should be stopped and greedy entrepreneurs have no place on local councils.
If councillors are found to have used their positions for personal financial gain they should be asked to resign by their respective parties.
However, although the local councils should not take the law into their own hands, there needs to be a system whereby genuine injustices are handled and not swept under the carpet.

pamelapacehansen@gmail.com