The Marsalforn Administrative Committee has once again been left entirely in the dark to the point of being actively ignored by the Ministry for Gozo on yet another encroachment along the Marsalforn seafront.
This development, which is taking place on public land, intends to move a monument which has been there for years to a different location at the beginning of the Marsalforn Valley, despite official letters of complaint from the Zebbug local council and the committee.
An article published by The Malta Independent in February had already addressed the issue of the committee being left in the dark by the ministry regarding construction work being done along the seafront to extend the pavement around Ekxa Kiosk in order to make way for a number of chairs and tables.
Frank Fenech, a member of the Administrative Committee spoke to this newsroom saying that they never accepted this development because it seems apparent that the ministry intends to turn Marsalforn into a sea of chairs and tables. Even when official complaints were made due to a lack of wheelchair and pushchair accessibility on pavements, these were entirely ignored.
Mr Fenech told us that, as yet, nobody even knows who the chairs are there for and, apart from sneaking suspicions, nobody is seemingly in the know apart from the ministry. In fact, the owner of Smiley’s Gabbana also complained about the development to the council, Mr Fenech said.
On its side, the Ministry for Gozo only partly replied to some of the questions sent by this newsroom stating that whatever development is happening is according to the Marsalforn Masterplan which has been approved by MEPA, the Lands Department and Transport Malta. Mr Fenech told TMI that this is a standard reply that the ministry sends anyone who enquires about any development.
When further pressed to answer questions which were originally sent over a week ago, the ministry yielded no reply until the time this newspaper went to print.