Siġġiewi residents are up in arms over shoddy road resurfacing throughout the village core by telecommunications company GO. 

Trenches were dug up in several streets as part of works to install new networks by the company. 

"It is a shame how our street was ravaged by [GO's] contractor to lay a cable. Shameful and outrageous," one resident said on a Facebook post about the issue. 

Another pointed out that "the least GO could have done was to resurface the entire lane for uniformity". 

"Is this what they call a multi-million euro investment? To make matters worse, they are now also replacing wires on facades with thick, black cables. We weren't even informed about this, even though it's our property!," another resident said.

A GO customer care agent told the residents the company is carrying out the works with the local council and Transport Malta “as part of a multi-million investment project”.

On the patching of the trenched part of the roads, the agent said the job had to be outsourced to a contractor but did not say whether these would be resurfaced properly at a later stage. 

GO reacts

In comments to Times of Malta, a GO spokesperson said the rolling out of "state-of-the-art" fibre network is "very complex, and setbacks, despite the lengthy planning that goes into it, are inevitable."

"We have worked very closely with the Siġġiewi Local Council during this planning process to ensure that all permits were in hand and that the council would have every opportunity to inform its residents accordingly of the scheduled works.  

"We also work closely with a number of other third-party entities, including Transport Malta and Infrastructure Malta. The conditions for resurfacing of the roads are laid out by Infrastructure Malta architects according to stipulated standards created to ensure road build integrity. We always carry out work in line with the instructions given," the spokesperson said. 

On the residents claiming the works were shoddy, the spokesperson said GO had undertaken "every effort" to ensure that the highest quality materials were used in the resurfacing of the trench dug in the process of carrying out these works.

She said: "Due to the fact that the street is very narrow, the typical machinery used for these type of trench work could not be used, so we had to hire alternative machinery and also undertake part of excavation work manually. Our contractors took it upon themselves to bring in bowsers of water to wash down the street to clear it of dust and debris and minimise the inconvenience as much as possible. 

The company also attempted to address the situation directly with the "small number of residents who feel so aggrieved by the situation".

"While we appreciate that they may not use or need our services at the moment, our plans are long-term and this project is serving Malta and its digital needs for many years to come."

The company also said it had nothing to do with the 'black cables'.