This is the second part of an interview with Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat. The first part can be found here
There is a great deal of development going on in Swieqi and the surrounding area, and traffic is already an issue. What do you think can be done to alleviate the amount of traffic that will be created over the next few years due to the high-rise buildings being constructed?
“Planning Authority issues are this area’s main challenge. It is giving permits to add more floors, which is resulting in more traffic. What happens is that if there is a property with three floors, and someone applies to add two more, they will not add more garage space as this is already constructed, and so there will be more cars needing somewhere to park.
“We took up this issue with the Planning Authority and on one occasion they even told us that they did not want more parking spaces in order to discourage people from buying cars. Our architects nearly fell off their chairs when they heard it! This is one issue.
“As such, we don’t have traffic problems inside Swieqi. It is a residential area and people leave to go to work, so there might be a lot of cars leaving between 7am and 9am and cars returning between 4pm and 7pm. On a daily basis, we don’t have traffic issues yet. In other areas, however, such as St Andrew’s Road, San Ġwann, Naxxar yes, so residents face traffic issues coming home.
“While traffic inside Swieqi itself is not really a main issue at present, building regulations and the lack of enforcement and lack of cooperation from Planning officials is very worrying. Local Councils are not equipped to tackle these issues.
“There is nothing in the Local Councils Act that says that councils should become involved in Planning Authority matters because in the past, when local councils were introduced, it wasn’t an issue. Now we have a development explosion, and there is tremendous activity going on in Swieqi, with loads of applications being received weekly. As councillors we don’t understand this, and just because we receive building applications does not mean we know whether they are good or bad, so we hired architects to assess the applications and advise us. If there is anything in them that is irregular, or that goes against policy, they inform us and we file our objection.
“This is ridiculous. In reality we shouldn’t have to do that; the PA should deal with these things and say if something is illegal or not.
“Another issue surrounds irregularities by contractors. Some contractors don’t create problems and you wouldn’t even know that they are building, but there are others who, from day one right up to the end, create problems. Then we have to call the police, Building Regulation Officers (BRO)... then they don’t come. We have evidence of cases where we wrote to the BRO and they just didn’t come. I have four emails regarding a site that is not properly protected and is dangerous, and they don’t even reply.
“I have a resident who nearly came to blows with a contractor this week and the BROs didn’t turn up. How do you protect residents? We keep reporting cranes blocking roads without a permit, illegal skips... but the BRO are not at all helpful. If they are doing their job I cannot see it and we do have proof of them not doing their job. We had a resident with an issue on a Friday afternoon, and the BRO told him that they couldn’t come until Monday. The resident had a problem at that time, so what do they mean by saying they can’t turn up?
“Then I had a case where I called a BRO and he said he couldn’t come because he was in Mellieħa. So we made some suggestions as to what they should do in this sort of situation.
What were your suggestions?
“That BROs should be allocated to a specific region and not be expected to go all over Malta. There would need to be more than one on duty at a time, so that if one is on sick leave there is someone else and if there is a lot of work, they can work together. They would be in continuous contact with the councils. The BRO does not have to follow our suggestions, but it needs to do something.
You’ve been quite vocal about the db Group situation as well as the Paceville Master Plan. How do these affect Swieqi, given that traffic inside the area isn’t an issue?
“First of all, Pembroke is our neighbour. Secondly, traffic mainly exists onto St Andrew’s road from both Pembroke and Swieqi, so our residents will be affected. While I am the mayor of Swieqi and should not interfere in other localities’ problems, we are interested in what happens there and I will support other areas who have a problem.
“St Andrew’s road is chock-a-block with traffic at practically any time of the day. Just imagine 7,400 more vehicles per day onto the Regional Road. The traffic from Pembroke has to exit onto that road. They are saying they will build a tunnel at the government’s expense. Where would the exit or entry be: the Regional Road or St Andrew’s road – which cannot take any more traffic.
“You also have to keep in mind what could happen in the future. And, in addition, right now Pendergardens Tower still has to be completed and populated and the same goes for Mercury House and Villa Rosa. Do you think the Corinthia and the others will stay quiet? Definitely not, they will want their towers as well. What are we going to do then? Add all this up, and try to imagine it. Even human traffic will be a problem, let alone vehicular traffic. People already twist around cars in St Julian’s, can you imagine with all this?
“The db project is also out of proportion, and it saddens me as that site was occupied by the ITS, which was a success and has now been removed from the heart of where it should be. Where would you teach medical students? In Hospital. Where would you teach tourism students, in the heart of tourism or in Smart City? Had they been benevolent and maybe included the school in the project... but no, why should they?
“We move the ITS out to make way for what? A monstrous project. And who will work in it? Foreigners, because there are no Maltese available, thus increasing the population even more. It’s crazy. Can the island take it? Have they worked out the carrying capacity of this island? How will we move around in 20 years time?”