Sliema is in shambles and no one seems to care
Mr Portelli is a Sliema Local Councillor
Local wardens have now been centralised, thanks to the recently formed LESA department and the police, who have extremely limited human resources can’t even cope with petty crimes, let alone chase contractors who keep breaking the law. To make matters worse, Mepa’s enforcement officers are not easily accessible or rather, they are in permanent hibernation.
With the upcoming Kappara Junction project, the situation in Sliema and surrounding localities can only worsen. The local council’s office staff is spending endless hours dishing out road closure permits against a fee, instead of seeing to the needs of the locality’s residents.
In fact, when taking a closer look to the permits issued in the first quarter of 2016 compared to that of the two previous years, you will notice an increase in road closure permits (table 1) and in the amount of roads which are being closed on a weekly and daily basis (table 2):
People seem to spend more time trying to get in and out of Sliema, due to the number of closed roads. Not to mention those roads which are closed or blocked illegally, with no valid permit from the local council. To add insult to injury, we have to endure the constant ‘bullying’ of contractors and workers who ‘reserve’ parking bays as they please, using all types of props, from wooden pallets to concrete blocks.
With two proposed high rise building in Tigné, which, according
Table 1