The farce that ended with Paola’s cobblestoned square being asphalted this week was another example of poor planning and a lack of long-term vision, Sandra Gauci said on Saturday.

The Green Party leader said people were paying for this “bad joke” through their taxes. A similar travesty was playing out in Għadira, she noted, where a road that had been rebuilt as a one-lane one was now being widened to two lanes at a further €7 million cost.

“The careless waste of our public funds shows that who is approving these projects is more involved in an exercise in vanity whilst giving contracts to friends, rather than implementing effective infrastructure which works in the long run,” Gauci said.

Gauci called for more transparency in the awarding of public tenders for infrastructural projects, to ensure they are awarded to competent people and asked what assurances taxpayers have that roads which cost millions to be rebuilt will not be dug up again a few months or years down the line.

Infrastructure Malta this week paved the road cutting through Paola’s square with a layer of asphalt, prompting the architect who had redesigned the square with pedestrians in mind to say “the dream has been crushed”.

The state roads agency said the resurfacing was necessary because the cobblestoned surface was badly damaged and no longer suitable for vehicular traffic. The project’s architect, Christopher Mintoff, said the road gave way because it was used by heavy vehicles such as trucks, which were originally meant to be banned from passing through the area.

“The cobbled street promoted slower traffic, smaller vehicles and pedestrian activity across the space. It never stood a chance. The space is divided once again,” Mintoff wrote on social media.

From left: ADPD members Carmel Cacopardo, Sandra Gauci and Ralph Cassar at Saturday's press conference. Photo: ADPD

Speaking on Saturday during the ADPD press conference, party deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo noted that the cobbled surface which has now been covered over was intended to slow down and reduce traffic through the square and instead encourage pedestrians.

He praised that plan, saying it was a good one that was also consistent with the government’s stated transport aims.

But the way in which authorities managed the square meant that turned out to be “an exercise in futility” and it was now business as usual for traffic, he said.

“What is the point of large expenditure on projects of this type, only for these to fail since the intended aims did not materialise because of the lack of authorities’ political will?” he asked. “The area is now just another congested, polluted urban centre.”