“More effort should be directed towards the human, social and cultural aspects. One has to bear in mind the needs of young working mothers and the special attention that needs to be given to an ever increasing ageing population,” Mrs Galea, a working mother herself told The Malta Independent on Sunday. “In our case, the council also has to work harder to implement long awaited projects in the locality.”

Mrs Galea is one of the many new candidates contesting the local council elections being held on 12 June.

“When the local councils were set up in 1993, there was a virtual re invention of government at a national and local level. This being the fourth round of local council elections it is abundantly clear that most of the initial resistance has crumbled,” said Mrs Galea. “The councils themselves represent a very strong proportion of the electorate at local level.”

This devolution of power and decentralisation has helped to focus on the needs, problems and wants of each particular locality.

“It would not be pompous to state that the local councils working together have an almost disproportionate effect on central government itself. This is already in itself a vast improvement,” said Mrs Galea.

A focused, assertive and enthusiastic Mrs Galea tells me that it is the strong sense of participation on a local level that has encouraged and motivated her to contest the next local council elections. Every locality concil faces its own set of particular challenges, be they social, environmental or infrastructural. “In my locality the council has performed very well in terms of the latter. It is my intention to strive to maintain the high environmental standards of Santa Lucia. The council also has to work harder to implement long awaited projects,” said Mrs Galea.

To her, like others, the road ahead is full of changes and challenges and can only be better served with stronger local councils, which in turn will strengthen the commitment of the central government.

The importance of the next local council elections lies also in the fact that they are the first after Malta’s accession to the European Union.