In comments he gave to this paper in reaction to the announcement of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) road resurfacing project in Haz-Zebbug, the Hon. Philip Mifsud MP (PN) made the following unfounded allegation that:

“… nearly all the roads on which works will soon start are in areas known to have a strong Labour Party backing and a high concentration of Labour Party supporters.

“Both the government and local council are discriminating between supporters of the country’s two political parties. This is totally unjust and unfair.”

Unlike me, Mr Mifsud is a native of Haz-Zebbug and so he should know that this is a locality where both parties are pretty well evenly matched, albeit Labour obtained a slight majority of 604 votes in the last Local Council elections held in March, 2008 (4,302 PL, 3,698 PN).

This means that he cannot categorically say that an area of Haz-Zebbug is more Labour or PN than another. If he has such information then he is in breach of the Data Protection Act.

That said, I want to put the minds of all Haz-Zebbug residents at rest that this local council administration does not make any such base calculations as those imputed by the Mr Mifsud when taking its decisions. Indeed, since I became mayor last November all decisions in the council have been approved by a unanimous vote, including that on which roads to include in the PPP road resurfacing project.

Let me just say how we came to apply for 41 roads around Haz-Zebbug for the PPP project, 19 of which have been approved so far and were announced last Wednesday.

Last year the Council issued a tender for the resurfacing of the following roads out of its own funds; Patri Pelagju Mifsud, Hal-Dwin, P. Buttigieg, Hal-Mula, il-Qubbajt, Kurkanta, Anthony Aquilina, Ghasfura, Tumas Dingli, Adeadato Gatt, Hal-Sajd, il-Qamh, ix-Xghir, il-Kosbor, l-Insig and l-Iskalora. In addition to these 16 roads, we were then able to issue, thanks to the financially advantageous bid which was adjudicated, a further tender for Triq il-Buskett which leads from the outskirts of the village to the Caritas San Blas Hostel and St Andrew’s Cemetery. When work on four of these roads, namely Il-Qubbajt, Kurkanta, Tumas Dingli and l-Ghasfura, had just been completed the Government issued Memo 45 which was the call for the PPP application.

Obviously, since the repayment terms of the PPP were more attractive we decided to include the remaining 13 roads already agreed upon but not yet commenced with other roads around Haz-Zebbug which needed resurfacing. Thus, we included all the roads announced last Wednesday, that is Ganni Bonnici, Luret Callus, l-Isqof Caruana, it-Taqtiegha, il-Fuqqanija, in-Newl, il-Watar, il-Qoton, il-Fraxxnu, Hal-Mula, L. Mifsud Tommasi, Dun Salv Trevisan, il-Poeta Nazzjonali, Guliermo Lorenzi, l-Indipendenza, Abram Gatt, Mamo, Mula, and Siggiewi, along with Triq il-Mithna, Luigi Fontana, John Zammit, Karlu Gimach, Princep Baziliku, Pawlu Debono, Sidtna tad-Dawl, l-Ghasir and Santa Marija.

When we submitted the application for these 41 roads as part of the PPP project, the Department for Local Government asked us to divide them into three groups. We did so keeping in mind geographic proximity first since this is a major consideration in costings even in tiny Malta.

The group of roads announced on Wednesday was also given priority because it comprises roads in the Hal-Mula area which had not been given any attention by the local council for the past three terms (ironically when the Hon. Philip Mifsud was a member of the same local council) and also roads which join this area (behind the Michael Debono Showroom) to the village core, that is roads like Mamo, Mula and Siggiewi. Apart from this we removed Triq il-Buskett from the PPP project since it is more urgent, and instead included Triq l-Isqof Caruana Street which is one of the most important roads in Haz-Zebbug as it stretches from the very core of the town to the Mdina By-Pass.

This shows clearly and irrefutably that there were no political calculations in the choice of roads to be resurfaced first, as Philip Mifsud so mistakenly claims.

Finally, it is to be pointed out that Mr Mifsud was not invited to attend last Wednesday’s press conference and, as far as I am concerned, he only showed up in order to try to take mileage out of it. I say this because, three weeks ago, on 14 August, he sent out notes to the residents of Vjal il-Helsien informing them that this major thorough-fare was going to be rebuilt thanks to his efforts (sic). Something which, I am told, has not gone down very well with PN ministers and members of parliament in the Haz-Zebbug constituency.

Sadly, one cannot expect any better when someone else chooses to excel at playing petty provincial village politics.

Alfred Grixti

Mayor, Zebbug