Letters to the editor – May 8, 2026

Noisy, unsafe vehicles

Malcolm Benson of Xemxija writes:

I am privileged to be able to sit on my terrace, with uninterrupted, beautiful views of Xemxija bay. One of life’s pleasure is to go through my printed copy of The Sunday Times of Malta, with a morning coffee to savour the moment.

For the record, I have been a motor sport fan all my life. I have enjoyed many fast and interesting cars on the road and track across Europe, so to see the vast collection of wonderful cars on a sunny Malta Sunday morning is a delight, except…

LESA needs to enforce the law. Photo: LESA Facebook

The loud, unsilenced or converted motor bikes that use the coast road and Xemxija hill as a race track is now totally unacceptable. 

Why can’t LESA/the police enforce the law and take these modified machines off the road and make them comply with the noise legislation and safe riding?

I invite anyone to join me in Xemxija on a Sunday from about 6am to witness this cacophony of unacceptable sounds; not great sports engine vibes just horrible, loud screaming machines.

Can the authorities, please, get tough on this noise and air pollution issue now and the police stop the racetrack usage on these key roads?

Labour Party’s healthcare debacle

Emily Barbaro-Sant from Mosta writes:

Former health minister Chris Fearne is on record saying that the Nationalist Party’s health proposals for the Maltese will take us back decades.

Is Fearne living on another planet and unaware of the state of our health system? The health system was doomed to failure ever since former disgraced prime minister Joseph Muscat trusted Konrad Mizzi with the health portfolio. What the PN is doing now is making suggestions that will give back dignity to our health system.

But now we know that Fearne is no better than his former and present Labour colleagues. His once description of Steward Health Care as the “real deal”, together with the hundreds of millions given to Vitals Global Healthcare and, later, to Steward brought our health system to its lowest level.

The long hours one has to spend at emergency, waiting to be seen by a doctor, then the hours on a stretcher in a corridor waiting to be given a bed, medicines out of stock and the worries of some elderly people who cannot converse with foreign nurses is today’s reality. Added to this, patients needing medical intervention today risk having their operation postponed even at the last minute. This is today’s state of affairs.

The PN, with its health proposals, is trying to change all this. It is also trying to give back Mater Dei Hospital the title of a state-of-the-art facility, which it has lost thanks to the inefficiency of the government and the extremely large number of foreigners in Malta.

Fearne is also to be reminded (lest he forgot) that it was the Labour Party in government, which he formed part of, that gave three hospitals – St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo General – to the unknown Vitals and, later, to Steward, for which we got nothing in return except the complete abandonment of St Luke’s and no refurbishment either at Karin Grech or in Gozo.

Fearne should be very careful about what he says if he wants to be credible.