From the online comments

Birkirkara’s Valley Road will close for all festa week

I’m all for pedestrianised areas and open spaces which is a hard sell and find given the intrinsic lack of space.

What irks me the most though is that the cynic in me knows well enough that this is nothing but a ‘(l)hobby’ group initiative shoving their pastime up everyone else’s behind, to put it bluntly, and whitewashing it as something culturally significant, unless by culture you mean chasing a statue while swearing and acting all mad and stuffing yourself with junk food and what not.

In a country that gets gridlock all the time, with endless ongoing major projects, how is closing a main artery for a whole week, 24/7 justifiable? What about emergency services and similar that might need to pass through? What about people living in the area whose job revolves around being able to use a motorised vehicle? Hopefully, this has been factored in. Regardless, this does not happen anywhere except in third-world countries, which is what we are.

If they really want to make a significant change how about omitting the useless petards and minimising the fireworks? Less noise pollution and less airborne particulate matter (including heavy metals) which end up in our water table, lungs and food as countless studies have shown. Studies that are nonchalantly ignored to appease the village idiots. – Jason Fenech

I think this is a great idea! But, please, manage it well, especially notifying where buses will be passing. – A.M. Camilleri

The week-long free of traffic has nothing to do with cutting down on pollution or saving on fuel. It’s just to keep the locals happy because of the festa. Another fake take by Labour and its boot-licking apologists. – Adrian Borg Cardona

What about those who depend on public transport? How is this going to be sorted? Valley Road is a main thoroughfare for all buses going to Balzan, Mosta and beyond. Hopefully, the local council has teamed up with Transport Malta to ensure that those whose daily life depends on public transport is not unnecessarily disrupted… which I am almost certain it will be. One must remember that there are no buses that are specifically destined to end in Birkirkara short of the 22, which really does not service the heart of Birkirkara and only appears whenever the drivers feel like it; as do those buses which terminate just outside the station bus terminus. – Rachel Galea

The country’s well-being decided by a group of dillettanti tal-festa. No second thoughts for the traffic mayhem, emergency services and utter chaos that develops.

The next elections will see a resurgence of national well-being, a return of Malta to the Maltese and general clean out of the nonsense that Malta has become because of the politics of popularity.

Viva Sant Elena! – Matthew Joslin

I strongly support well-planned pedestrianisation. But this sounds a little strange. Why did it have to be closed all day for a whole week? Are they expecting throngs of people 24/7? Have they planned external activities in the midday sun? Many villages plan the event for the evening and leave the roads open for most of the day. This is an extremely busy arterial road. – R. E. Saliba

This is crazy, to say the least. The shops might have an issue with sales but the thousands of commuters using that road will suffocate other areas that are already jammed. Unless there’s a U-turn in mind to get good publicity, whoever is planning such things should consider having his head checked. – S. Schembri

The road will now be closed from Monday to Friday from 6.30pm onwards.