The St Paul’s Bay council is planning to go ahead with plans to build a vessel-shaped structure which will cost around Lm50,000 just to house a public convenience facility, this newspaper has learnt.
The enormous structure has already attracted its fair share of criticism from the nearby Sirens Aquatic Club, due to the inconvenience its construction was causing to swimmers.
Club president Lino Vella criticised the cost of the project, which will total Lm7,000 for each of the seven toilets to be housed in the ark-like public convenience facility.
Vella said the cost of the facility, consisting of three toilets for women, two for men, and two for the disabled, as well as two showers, was “exaggerated”.
The construction of the facility has so far been suspended, after contractor Adam Bugeja saw members of the Sirens Aquatic Club shouting obscenities aimed at the mayor and councillors. It is expected to be resumed in September.
Labour councillor Robert Ciantar, who criticised the excessive cost of the facility, claims the unfinished structure is however posing a potential danger: “the unfinished construction is being utilised as a static climbing circuit by children.”
But St Paul’s Bay PN mayor Paul Bugeja denied any dangers being posed by the unfinished construction, which is surrounded by netting.
He said the construction will be funded from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, from infringements paid over the construction of an apartment block behind the locality’s parish church.
Labour councillor Robert Ciantar said he never received copies of site plans and estimates since first requesting them back in January.
Deputy mayor John Bray told MaltaToday he was not completely updated on the case because he was absent from a couple of meetings due to illness.
Another Labour councillor, Raymond Tabone, who is responsible for the maintenance of the public latrines, said he “received several complaints from families who were concerned about their children’s welfare”, and that the work has been “paused abruptly”.
He said that he threatened to report the council to the Occupational Health and Safety Authority if a safety barrier was not installed around the unfinished construction. The netting was attached soon after.
In a bid to reduce the inconvenience created, contractor Adam Bugeja said he used a pump, used to mix concrete, in a way that it would not emit dust in the direction of the Sirens club. “A pump was used instead of the usual crane, resulting in me forking out Lm120 from my own pocket,” Bugeja said.