I am disgusted, outraged and ashamed by the conditions for disabled people at the Gozo Ferry terminal at Cirkewwa. I am a disabled person but fortunately I can walk with crutches.
Mellieha Local Council was recently awarded the accolade “European Destination of Excellence” by the European Union. Were the people blind? The person who inspected the area and gave this award to the Local Council was definitely not disabled or elderly. Perhaps this is another case of “it’s not what you know, but who you know”.
I travel to Gozo quite often during the year and am impressed by the terminal in Gozo. On the Malta side, however, it is a completely different matter. Cirkewwa should look something like Mgarr, especially as most tourists see this terminal first. At the moment it is in a mess and the staff definitely needs a course in customer care.
On my last visit to Gozo, I checked to see if the one disabled car space (there used to be three), which is near the sea, was available. I then went to the ticket office and got my ticket. I asked the attendant if he could inform the person on the gate that I would be parking in the disabled bay (if it was still available) and that he should allow me to go through the gate used by the people disembarking the ferry. If you cannot do that, it means a long walk all the way back to the ticket office and then another long walk to the boat, which is difficult for a disabled person. The answer I received was: “I do not even know where the disabled parking space is! Can you speak to the man standing over there reading the paper.” I did as requested, and the man replied: “Who shall I call? What shall I tell him?”. After repeating my request more slowly, he still could not understand what I was asking. After several minutes trying to explain, I told him to forget about it and left, extremely angry. While I was getting into my car, the same man came out and said to me: “Issma, Issma. I called him on the radio and told him what you had told me and he said you cannot go in there, you cannot park as there is no disabled parking in there”, (this was in Maltese). I immediately drove and parked in the single disabled space (which, according to the staff, does not exist) and walked straight through the gate onto the boat with nobody saying a thing to me.
I should like to point out the following:
1. There is more than one disabled person on the Island, as well as tourists who are disabled.
2. There are no toilet facilities for the able-bodied at the terminus, let alone for the disabled.
3. Many disabled people do not have a lot of upper body strength and the door to the toilet for the disabled on the ferries is extremely heavy to move, even for an able-bodied person.
4. The whole environment at the Cirkewwa ferry terminal is dangerously badly lit at night, which could be the cause of an accident. Do the authorities responsible for the area carry insurance?
5. The concrete ramps are very bad and uneven and a wheelchair cannot go up them properly.
6. The walkway from the boat is in an appalling state, especially in bad weather. I have slipped on the actual ramp from the boat when it has been wet and when it has had oil from cars on it. An elderly or disabled person could easily fall. It could also cause a puncture to a wheelchair tyre.
7. There is more than ample parking space for coaches and mini buses, which is almost always empty or with only a few coaches in it, but extremely poor parking for able or disabled people with cars.
8. The sign on the boat says no passengers are allowed to stay in the vehicles while the ferry is moving. Often there is no room for a disabled person to get their wheelchair and themselves in or out of the car, or else access to the lift is impossible to negotiate due to the closeness of the parked cars. This especially applies if the disabled person’s car is towards the end of the queue. Perhaps disabled parking spaces could be provided which could be filled when the boat is leaving, should there be no passengers with a disability.
9. In winter, after 9pm, there is no transport and no clear signs telling people how to get transport. I have often seen people walking to Mellieha. This is certainly not a good image for Malta.
10. The staff of the Gozo Ferry and terminal should be more informed about all the procedures, so that misunderstandings do not occur and a more customer-friendly environment prevails. Mind you, I had difficulty in making myself understood in Maltese, let alone English.
Gozo is a very important part of Malta, and apart from disabled people who use the ferry, in the winter months many elderly tourists take advantage of special offers to come to Malta and spend time in Gozo. The ferry terminal is more like the terminal of a third world country (dirty, broken concrete, rusty pipes – to mention only a few things) and gives a bad impression to everyone who uses it. With tourism being a very important part of the Maltese economy, I would have thought that attention to this area would have had priority. Obviously, government officials and the more affluent members of society do not use the walk on/walk off parts of the terminal, so do not see the bad condition it is in. I was recently told that the terminal will not be ready until at least 2015. Six years is a very long time to wait, especially if no improvements are made to the existing one. There is a sign “Work in progress” at Cirkewwa (although I have never seen any work being done) but many of the problems could be solved easily, especially having a more suitable place for disabled parking.
I would also suggest that the people responsible for making decisions regarding facilities for the disabled, borrow a wheelchair to see if those facilities are wheelchair-friendly. I would be very happy to supply them with one, and also to help in this matter.
Don’t forget – Mellieha is now a “European Destination of Excellence”.
Steven Fenech