There is talk again of a permanent link between Malta and Gozo. I, for one, am against it for now but may change my opinion if I am convinced that it is good for Gozo.

They are mentioning €750 million developments but projects like this, here and elsewhere, sometimes end up costing double or triple, and not forgetting the running costs. If a private company will do it, do you think that it can bring back the capital and the running costs and also make some profit?

So while waiting for a permanent link to become a possibility, I propose that you truly liberalise transport between Malta and Gozo. When this was done in air transport by introducing low cost airlines and when sightseeing buses and trains and water ferries started working, it boosted our economy and made it more tourist friendly. Right now, the Gozo Malta link is monopolised by Gozo Channel. You should truly liberalise it and let other companies work and we would see a big improvement: waiting times slashed and more ferrying across and not only to Cirkewwa.

I am in favour of the airstrip being proposed, but does it make sense to make it so long when Gozo is so small and you are taking a sizeable chunk of it. Let it be capable of handling small fixed winged aircraft, but not so big as to have a big impact on our natural environment and arable land. I envisage even Gozitan workers using it to go to Malta for work.

I believe that a permanent link would change Gozo's concept of an island forever. But while waiting for the decision time to arrive, let's not do like some Christians who wait for Judgement Day and neglect the present. We are continuously gobbling up its natural beauty and we will end up with batching plants and sites where to store building machinery everywhere and the villages connected to each other. Stop it! You, dear Government, will not make Malta the best in Europe if you reward illegality by sanctioning batching plants and sites for parking construction machinery in the countryside.

Dear Government, do you think it makes sense to grant agritourism operators permits to build in the countryside when existing accommodation is 10 minutes away by car? Do you not realise that this will create a loophole that would give another blow to the natural land in Gozo? And all to appease some greedy developers who do not have at heart sustainable development and the natural beauty of Gozo.

And while waiting, why don't you make Gozo better for Gozitans? Malta benefited much from the previous and this administration. All those family parks at Marsascala and elsewhere, as well as embellishments in Bormla, etc... Nothing like this is happening in Gozo. Don't use the permanent link as a red herring to show how much you care for Gozitans. Why don't you convert the quarry in Hondoq into a family park with trees, etc? Why don't you build a public heated swimming pool where the Old Boys' Secondary School stands or near it near the Sports Complex? Why do you advertise Gozo's natural beauty and then do your utmost to destroy it? Why not advertise holidays in Gozo involving walks and bike rides in our island's natural beauty?

 

Joe Portelli

Nadur