Six NGOs have urged Msida residents and other concerned citizens to endorse their calls for a controversial flyover project in the town to be sent back to the drawing board.
The NGOs have written to Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg, Planning Minister Aaron Farrugia and Msida local council and asked them to reconsider Msida Creek plans, which they say will not solve the area’s long-term problems and instead destroy a community.
First announced in 2019, the Msida Creek roadworks project proposes to eliminate Msida Circus junctions and replace them with flyovers, allowing traffic to flow uninterrupted but also adding massive concrete infrastructure in the heart of the town.
Activists say the project will “split Msida in two”, forcing people to use footbridges to cross from one side to the other, while also eradicating the green and community space reserved for locals to play boċċi, tombola and other activities.
They have also expressed concern about footbridges blocking views from an adjacent apartment block and highlighted accessibility concerns for cyclists, wheelchair users, and people pushing prams.
“Considering the number of pedestrians who cross from one side of Msida to another on a daily basis, the use of lifts will severely clog pedestrian traffic which constitutes a major problem for such a heavy pedestrian zone,” they said.
The NGOs want the government to scrap these plans and instead consider alternatives, while ensuring social and environmental impact assessments for the project are carried out.
They proposed turning the area into a “new and improved public transport interchange with the potential to provide a major public open space”.
Din l-Art Ħelwa, Friends of the Earth Malta, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar, Moviment Graffitti, Ramblers Malta and the Archaeological Society of Malta all signed the letter, together with residents who oppose the plans.
Other residents who want to voice their opposition to the plans can endorse the letter online.
Activists are not the only people to have expressed scepticism about the project. The president of the Chamber of Architects, Andre Pizzuto, has warned that the project will destroy Msida’s social fabric, and encourage traffic to run through the town.
Pizzuto has argued that a better long-term solution is to find ways of diverting traffic away from the town, allowing the Msida junction area to be pedestrianised.
“They see this as a road engineering problem, so their solutions are road engineering ones. But this is an urban planning problem, and the solutions to be found are there,” he said.
Conservation architect Joanna Spiteri Staines has similar views. In an opinion piece published by Times of Malta, Spiteri Staines made a pitch for the Pieta’ seafront to be entirely pedestrianised, noting similar projects across major European cities.
"It has happened in Madrid and Barcelona. All the current regeneration plans for inner-city cores across Europe seek the removal of vehicular activity and the replacement of roads with green liveable spaces," Spiteri Staines wrote.