Letters | Sunday, 01 February 2009

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Ideal venue for new Gozo court

Gozo is in dire need of a new and modern complex which includes ample office space for services such as a public registry, a regional police headquarters with lock-up cells, the fire brigade and rescue centre, a regional Attorney General’s office, a regional office for local government and any other department that falls under the Justice Ministry incorporated with new law courts.
The current law courts at the Citadel are not accessible to persons with different abilities, especially those using wheelchairs, and the historic premises certainly do not meet the health and safety requirements for the workers.
Alternattiva Demokratika had long been proposing a different venue for a new law court and its amenities in Gozo. Some years ago, the government had proposed that the building of the new school complex in Victoria should incorporate the new Law Courts; however, we felt that such proposal was grossly misguided on two counts.
Firstly it would do nothing to diminish the chronic traffic and pollution problem in Victoria; and secondly, it would gravely endanger the welfare of schoolchildren by bringing them into close daily contact with persons attending court, some of whom may be completely undesirable.
It would further compound the menace posed by those who already routinely loiter outside the school, an unchecked vice afflicting every educational institution in the nation.
It now transpires that the government wants to build the new court premises in the centre of Victoria, Gozo and the residential area of Pjazza l-Assedju 1551, which is at the moment being used as a parking area.
Apart from this, the residents have not been at all consulted with regards to the plans of the buildings, which will certainly affect their quality of life.
We are not against the building of new premises for the law courts. On the contrary, we are in favour. But we are against it being built in the centre of Victoria because this would bring with it more traffic in the midst of the population with an increased rate of noise pollution and air quality deterioration, and the consequent dangers posed to the health of residents and their children.
We urge the Gozo Ministry and the Home Affairs Ministry as well as the Transport Ministry to seriously reconsider their plans to develop the only open space left in the centre of Victoria. We propose instead that the law courts be moved to the outskirts of the city to a vacant complex formerly rented to Malta Dairy Products (MDP), where commuters could be served by a shuttle bus service.
Gozitans will be better serviced through these proposals and the much talked-about traffic congestion in Victoria would ease considerably.
The residents living around Pjazza l-Assedju are worried, rightly so, that the site being put forward by the government is grossly inadequate since it will increase the chronic traffic and pollution problem in Victoria and will destroy one of the few open spaces left in the capital of Gozo.

Victor Galea
AD Spokesperson for Gozo
Gharb

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