Hands off Swieqi

Our legislators and planners seem to be oblivious to the fact that the once pleasant residential town called Swieqi is in grave danger of being downgraded to an extension of Paceville.

“A moratorium on short-let licenses must be imposed until a carrying capacity exercise is carried out which would define how many such licenses can exist in Swieqi without disrupting the social order of the town.”

The mad rush to make a quick buck, with absolutely no concession to the resultant deterioration of quality of life which has pervaded our country in the past few years, is resulting in residents being pushed out of their homes, initially to give way to short-let tourist accommodation and eventually to hostels, guest houses and hotels.

This is what businessmen want; it certainly is not what ordinary citizens want. And the legislators appear to favour the desires of businessmen above those of residents.

We have seen this process painfully evolve in Paceville. The planners decided that what was once a pleasant and peaceful seaside town would be transformed into a jungle of bars and restaurants, complete with hotels occupying prime seaside locations.

This is what Paceville is today, an absolute mess, a showcase of degradation. Anyone who knew St George’s Bay as a safe and congenial swimming bay will be mortified to see what it is today, a massive building site created by developers and “planners” for the construction of a mega-project to replace the former ITS, enhanced by the volumes of dust blown all over the area and the sound of excavators and construction vehicles. If this project is ever completed, one shudders to think of the masses of tourists, the mountains of litter, the noise of heavy bands, and the pollution generated by vehicular traffic which users of the bay, and residents of the surrounding area, will have to endure. Hell on earth.

And the tragedy is that the delights of Paceville appear to be spreading into neighbouring Swieqi. The tentacles of empowered businessmen are now gradually infiltrating into Swieqi. They first raped Lourdes Lane, which until recently was a respectable residential area, and they are now advancing into the heart of the town, with Swieqi Road in their sights.

There can be no two standpoints about this. The Planning Authority and the Malta Tourism Authority are responsible for this ongoing erosion of our so-called Residential Priority Areas, which is the term used in the Local Plans to define the majority of areas in Swieqi. What a sick joke! The quality of life of residents plays second fiddle to the whims of developers, motivated by the same authorities which were created to defend that very same quality of life.

The local plan bans activities of a commercial nature from Residential Priority Areas.

But are short-let apartments, which are mushrooming like a cancer in Swieqi, not commercial activities? The use of apartments as short-let accommodation is incredibly and inexplicably not controlled by the Planning Authority, and therefore the Malta Tourism Authority continues to gleefully issue licences for apartments to be used for tourist accommodation in Priority Residential Areas.

This practice must stop. This overload of short-let apartments is resulting in various instances of anti-social behaviour from Paceville patrons who return to their rented accommodation in Swieqi after a night out. The irresponsible disposal of garbage from these uncontrolled apartments, the damage caused to property, the noise contamination at night, are unacceptable. A further increase in the transient tourist population will simply increase the uncontrollable predicament which Swieqi finds itself in.

Minister of Tourism, please wake up!

Hands off Swieqi!

We do not want Swieqi to become an extension of Paceville. Businessmen please look elsewhere, or restrain your grand aspirations. Enough is enough! A moratorium on short-let licenses must be imposed until a carrying capacity exercise is carried out which would define how many such licenses can exist in Swieqi without disrupting the social order of the town.

The residents of Swieqi eagerly await action from the Minister of Tourism in conjunction with the Minister responsible for Planning. Without further delay.