What are the authorities doing?

Sliema has faced many problems over the past few years, with higher buildings being constructed causing increased traffic flow, the increased take-up of pavements by tables and chairs, and continuous noise pollution.

Once filled with town houses along the front, the skyline quickly changed, and flats are now the order of the day.

But there are many issues with this situation. Firstly, parking in Sliema is a nightmare, and residents without a garage constantly face these issues, with even side roads jam-packed with vehicles.

This will only get worse if the Planning Authority keeps granting permits for more development without holistically looking at the whole area. By this, we are not only talking about mega projects like Townsquare or Fortina, but also when it comes to approving the construction of additional floors without the necessary parking spaces in a garage to compensate.

Making developers pay money into a fund for not including enough garage parking is not helping a locality where parking is already a problem. More so when the PA deems it fit to consider taking said funds to construct a car park at the university, justifying this possibility by saying that a park-and-ride system would make this project beneficial for Sliema. Who will park at the university in order to head to Sliema, given that they would get stuck in traffic anyway?

Aside from parking issues, there are noise complaints, construction regulation violations and the issue of tables and chairs taking up pavements. Last week, the Sliema mayor himself said that the enforcement authorities were short on resources. He said that the Building Regulations Office did not have the manpower to deal with complaints, given that their officers need to respond to complaints nationwide when they do not have enough employees to handle this situation.

The government and the authorities need to wake up, and fast. Residents calling the authorities to deal with abusive behaviour from contractors, or noise complaints from bar owners, tend to fall on deaf ears. The excuse? Because the authorities do not have the resources to deal with the situation.

If there isn’t enough manpower in enforcement, then perhaps those making the regulations should impose even harsher fines to act as a stronger deterrent. A lack of resources is not an acceptable excuse.

As for congestion, the number of cars on the road continues to increase, and while the government is making an effort to temporarily deal with the situation by widening roads, this is not a long-term plan. If more and more cars are allowed on the roads, then it is only a matter of time before the widened roads become jammed once again. Some major changes are needed, and urgently.

When it comes to high-rise construction, residents’ voices deserve to be given more weight than they are. Too often does the PA allow a mega project, despite countless objections from those living in the area. While greed satisfies the few, not everyone can get what they want, and the masses will suffer.