First of all, it must be said that the government has done a great job in securing funds from the European Union and the Italian government to upgrade our road network.

We have seen the construction of roads which are of excellent quality – on a par with European standards with services passed in access tunnels by the roadside. This, of course, should see an end put to the old practice of digging up a road that has just been finished simply to fix a faulty cable.

We also finally have cambers applied in the construction of roads which will allow for better water runoff and drainage, which should help the flooding problems we have seen in the past.

Yes, apart from some cost overruns and delays in construction, a good job has been done. I will not delve into the ins and out of the delays in construction – but by and large, one must say that we are well on the way to having a good, modern arterial road network.

But, there are a couple of points which I feel should be raised.

Although much of the funds has been spent on upgrading the arterial road network, not enough has been spent on the local area network. Some work has been done, but there are still a whole load of roads in areas such as Naxxar, Mosta, Birkirkara, Qormi and many other villages around Malta and Gozo that are in need of reconstruction. What use is it for the government to tell me that they have spent millions of liri on roads that are to my benefit, only for me to continue to destroy the suspension of my car when driving in village centres. Perhaps the government ought to look into spreading the funds out more evenly between main network arteries and village cores.

Another issue which needs attention is that of public transport. Public transport does not only mean route buses (although there is still much to be desired in that area too). Public transport means water taxis, lifts to town, metros, trams and much, much more. We have heard about possibilities of installing lifts and organising water taxis, but, alas, concrete action seems less than forthcoming.

Chris Criminale

Mosta