Dreaming of a Buġibba, Qawra mini-council

The announcement that a number of localities have now been awarded their own "mini-councils" is yet again confirmation that the residents of Qawra and Buġibba are now officially being treated as second-class citizens and that the present Administration has no intentions of ever taking the interests of this locality seriously!

For many years we were told that we had to put up with insufficient funds to provide basic and necessary services, while the funds allocated to service Qawra and Buġibba had been spent on the village folly, namely the Sirens toilets.

The summer population doubles during the five peak months while the funds allocated to St Paul's Bay council remain the same.

One wonders if the real reason for this is politically motivated. Are there people more interested in playing party politics than seeing to the basic needs of the constituents and, with their hands on the tiller of local politics, are afraid that it will loosen their political grip on our area?

Anyone who walks along Tourist Street in Qawra, which is the main road, can see the sheer lack of very basic amenities as well as the number of dangerous potholes, broken pavements and the general state of neglect of this once proud "tourist resort" which has been reduced to a shambles.

I would welcome a visit from Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said to give the residents the opportunity to show him round and enable him to see at first hand why Buġibba and Qawra deserve their own district council, if for nothing else, because there are as many registered residents living in this area as there are in all the recently-formed mini-councils put together!