The Mdina paving project has still not been completed even though it should have been ready by June last year.

This is causing inconvenience to residents, tourists and shop owners, Labour leader Dr Alfred Sant said yesterday.

He said that the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) and the Federated Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (FATTA) had complained about the delay because Mdina is an important tourist centre – around 70 per cent of all visitors to Malta go there.

He said the Labour Party planned to commission a study on the state of the city’s fortifications and would initiate talks with the Rabat council to find a solution to the parking problem near the Roman Domus.

The council should encourage financial incentives for those residents who wished to carry out restoration work in their own homes, he said.

Frederick Azzopardi is Labour’s candidate for the Mdina council elections.

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said that the Opposition Leader has shown that he is not interested in archaeological remains that were found in Mdina and is ready to spend thousands of liri from public funds to pay for low quality paving stone.

The PN said that the archaeological find in St Paul’s Square resulted in the stopping of work for eight weeks. The excavation of the remains was done with the coordination of the Superintendent of Archaeological Heritage so that these will be conserved and no damage is done.

The PN said that the government had always insisted on high quality stone for the Mdina project with 17 per cent of the imported material having to be discarded as this was of inferior quality.

The PN said that in the two years of Alfred Sant’s Labour government, the only completed project was that of Bugibba. In a year, a Nationalist government completed projects in various localities including Paceville, Bugibba, Qormi, Marsa, Xemxija and Valletta.