The person who finally let the cat out of the bag was Local Councils Association president Ian Micallef who confirmed that the Sliema Joint Committee will be placing two “dome cameras” on Regional Road. These, he said, are similar to others used in other spots around the island, including in Paceville and The Strand in Gzira.

This means that the story carried in TMID yesterday – that there were no speed cameras on Regional Road in spite of signs warning motorists that there were – was true.

Dr Micallef said the joint committee has received a proposal for the provision of speed cameras for the Regional Road. But this proposal has not yet been discussed by the committee and the contractor responsible for providing the service, he said.

Asked what was the reasoning behind installing speed cameras which do not detect speed, Dr Micallef said the idea was to give motorists the chance to get used to the fact that there are cameras in the road. “Our main target is the safety of motorists.”

The first reaction to The Malta Independent’s story came at a press conference yesterday morning during which information on tests being conducted on the Regional Road bridges was given.

Reacting to this newspaper’s claim that the speed cameras had never been put up, Malta Transport Authority chairman Charles Demicoli said the speed cameras were put up on Friday 9 April, which happened to be Good Friday, and were removed on Monday “because they were not the right cameras and were not doing their job”.

By coincidence, according to Mr Demicoli, after having been there for just over a week, they were removed just some time before The Malta Independent went there to investigate.

Moreover, Mr Demicoli suggested that the speed cameras which were put up by the ADT were illegal. “The law does not give the ADT the freedom to put up speed cameras wherever it wants. We still have to arrange that (part of the law). We removed them because they were temporary and they will now be replaced with enforcement cameras provided by local councils.”

Enforcement cameras do not detect speed.

Asked why the ADT had not put up enforcement cameras in the first place, Mr Demicoli simply said: “It did not cross my mind.” He continued: “Friday (Good Friday) was crazy. We performed a miracle. In the morning the experts informed us that the bridge was oscillating and needed to be checked. They suggested that we should impose a speed limit and we introduced it.”

He said that in the meantime, the ADT began holding “discussions with the councils” and the new cameras will be put up today. He did not elaborate on which council was responsible.

Since the Regional Road is an arterial road, it fell within the direct responsibility of the government and not any local council. But since Mr Demicoli had told this newspaper that they had spoken to “the councils”, The Malta Independent made a number of phone calls to see which council will be taking the matter in hand.

St Julian’s mayor Peter Bonello and Swieqi mayor Paul Abela both said that they were never told to put up the speed cameras, adding that the Sliema joint committee would have been told to carry out this work.

Mr Abela added that his council had never been consulted on any decisions to impose a speed limit, which obviously affected Swieqi residents. “It is obvious that there are no cameras. Where were they? Underground?” he asked.

The Malta Independent contacted the chairman of the joint committee Albert Bonello Dupius, who is also the Sliema mayor. Apart from stating that he did not know of any cameras which the joint committee had to put up today, Mr Bonello Dupius said the committee only had surveillance cameras which were not able to detect speed. This confirmed what Dr Micallef told this newspaper.

Since The Malta Independent could not understand who was responsible and since the councils were not informed that they had to put up speed cameras this morning, this newspaper once again contacted ADT’s Mr Demicoli.

Mr Demicoli was not available for comments but soon after ADT chief executive officer Mario Falzon returned the call. We asked him who the ADT had spoken to with regard to the speed cameras and who had promised to put them up today. Here, Mr Falzon said that it was Dr Ian Micallef who had informed him personally about this.

It was at this point that The Malta Independent finally got through to the person who confirmed that the cameras were being installed today and also confirmed that these cameras did not detect speed.

It is not known who will be responsible for the enforcement of the speed limits and who will be issuing the fines.

Meanwhile, in parliament yesterday evening, Labour MP Joe Cuschieri asked Minister Ninu Zammit whether there were permits for the speed limit on the Regional Road. Minister Zammit, who was replying to parliamentary questions on behalf of Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett, asked Mr Cuschieri to put the question in writing.