A local councillor has proposed renaming a street in Żejtun after former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff less than a month after he died, but the idea has yet to rally enough support in the Labour-led council.
PL councillor Joe Hales’s motion was discussed on Thursday evening and, though no one objected to dedicating a street to Mr Mintoff, several councillors raised concerns about the impact it would have on residents.
“The problem is that we do not have a new street to name,” mayor Joe Attard told The Times yesterday, pointing out that this would have been the easiest solution.
Several councillors argued that changing a street name would cause too much inconvenience to residents since it would require changes to ID cards, driving licences and contracts, he added.
Others objected to Mr Hales’s suggestion to rename St Monica Street, arguing that the council should opt to change a street name with less of a link to Żejtun or which would result in less inconvenience to residents.
St Augustin Street was also mentioned during the meeting as another possibility.
According to Nationalist councillor Darrell Pace – who wrote about the discussion on Facebook – the meeting ended with six councillors disagreeing with Mr Hales’s proposal.
Mr Pace said he had not objected to a street being named after Mr Mintoff but insisted that politicians with a closer connection to Żejtun should be given “adequate priority”.
The motion was not put to a vote and, according to the mayor, it is still being “evaluated”.
Żejtun is unlikely to be the only council willing to name a street after Mr Mintoff, considering the number of streets named after former Prime Minister George Borg Olivier, including in Gozo, Mellieħa, Rabat, Sliema and St Julian’s.
Mr Attard also pointed out that the council’s decision would still have to be accepted by the Street Naming Committee, which recently objected to a council suggestion to rename a street after Karmenu Carabott, a dockyard worker who was politically persecuted in the 1930s.
Contacted yesterday, Mr Hales insisted that the debate had not been concluded and that there was disagreement on which street should be named after the former Prime Minister, who died last month.
He was inspired to make the proposal since he believed Mr Mintoff had given an enormous social contribution to Żejtun, such as through the building of social housing.
Mr Hales, who takes an interest in street names, was the person who proposed naming a central square after Independence, even though the historical national feast is considered to be a Nationalist Government achievement.
“My interest is the truth,” he said, stressing that no one could deny the contribution of Mr Mintoff towards Żejtun.