In England, the cuckoo’s song is said to be the first harbinger of spring. In Gozo, it’s the cuckoo mentality that heralds the start of high summer.

For example, they dredge the harbour at the end of June, piling effluent on the road at the entrance to the port.

They create a traffic lane system to the ferry terminal that can have been designed only by someone who has never driven a car through Mgarr, and plastic bollards are strewn all over the road.

They close major thoroughfares in Ghajnsielem, Xaghra and Marsalforn without anything as helpful as a diversion sign – all projects, presumably, that could not have been tackled in winter.

They announce the demolition of the façade of the Duke of Edinburgh hotel.

They resurface roads in Xewkija, carefully leaving the iron manhole covers protruding above the fresh tarmac by at least six inches. Yet they don’t even touch the tourist routes to Xlendi, Ramla, Ta’ Cenc, Hondoq or Dwejra.

Drivers of white taxis overcharge for a journey from the airport to Cirkewwa.

On the Gozo side they charge whatever they think they can get away with.

Motorists returning to Malta doggedly ignore the partly obscured stop signs along their route (where are those traffic wardens, when you want them?).

Aircraft run more than two hours late, the ferry does not leave on time, and passengers are stranded because sometimes the ticket machine doesn’t work.

The marina looks like a scrapyard. The ferry terminal looks like a suburb of Baghdad. Chambray appears to have been abandoned.

Mgarr has obviously become a no-go area for the construction industry.

All this is Gozo in the hot summer months.

Revel Barker

Ghajnsielem, Gozo