The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said it finds it unacceptable that such a serious and increasingly acute problem that is traffic congestion is being met with a string of knee-jerk recommendations in the hope that these turn out to be effective.

The chamber issued a statement following a suggestion made that the opening of schools should be staggered over different hours to ease traffic congestion issues.

The chamber said that in the 14-page white paper titled ‘School Opening Hours and Traffic Congestion’ only one sentence makes reference to delivery vans and vaguely suggests that “Services delivered by heavy vehicles should not coincide with the heavy morning traffic time.” (Recommendation 16)

The Malta Chamber feels that the lifeline of Malta’s business community deserves more than one line in a 14-page document.

The problem of traffic congestion will not be solved by passing the parcel from one sector to the other. Malta deserves a holistic plan for transportation which includes an efficient public transport system, a European level road network and better observance of traffic laws by all involved, in order for traffic to flow more smoothly.