Accident in waiting
Part of the works in the ill-conceived revamping of Triq il-Prinjoli, Santa Luċija, entailed the repositioning and replacement of the street lighting with a new LED system. Soon after the lights became functional, a Transport Malta sub contractor inadvertently damaged the power cable while drilling the ground to insert one of the new 50 poles supporting traffic signs (in a mere 400-metre stretch of road) to go with the change to a one-way traffic system.
Uglification rather than embellishment.
Consequently, two lights right opposite my house have been inoperable for five months. Simply preposterous!
To make matters worse, as the powers that be often have the knack to do, in the same area the pavement has been protruded to create a pedestrian crossing complete with Belisha Beacons.
The beacons are not yet installed resulting in at least four vehicles crashing into the protrusion, three of them at night. Three damaged their right-side front wheel beyond repair – tyre and rim, in the process. The prepared fitting to take the beacon pole has also been destroyed.
I must make it amply clear that once all this was reported, the local council did all they could to rectify the issue, even writing to energy minister Miriam Dalli more than once. When I remarked that I found it odd that a very busy minister should be bothered with the repair of just two street lights when she has an army of engineers, managers, foremen working for her who get paid to look after that, I got a candid and desperately honest reply from the council – “when you try the right avenues to fix a problem and fail repeatedly, then you resort to the last option”.
Yet, we are still in the dark with the risk of an injury accident waiting to happen.
Victor Pisani – Santa Luċija
How to push retirees away
On Monday morning this ancient piece of machinery (right) was put out in Marsalforn as a working demonstration of how to attract tourists. The location was selected to block the main thoroughfare for pedestrians walking from the car park to the beach.
It also drove away clients from one of the most popular restaurants in town. The noise was horrendous and the oil spilled on the tiles under the machine will undoubtedly be left as a reminder.
My first visit to Gozo was in 2004 and I thought what a nice place it was to retire to.
I duly retired and took up residence in Gozo 10 years ago but already the rot had set in and so it continues.
The recent bad press about Malta as a retirement destination is therefore not a surprise. Maybe the government is happy to be without people who have experienced countries where the environment is not being destroyed. Where driving is safe and parking is organised and available. If that is the case, the tourism ministry should have Air Malta include my photo in the in-flight magazine to deter would-be retirees.
Tell me, why doesn’t the tourism ministry have inspectors to at least try to make the country attractive to visitors and prevent the outrageous behaviour of contractors?
Douglas Wholey – Xagħra