Being a resident of St Julian’s and working in St Julian’s you would think getting back and forth from work would be simple enough. But no!
Almost every day we have a crane blocking the way in Carmel Street and leaving home is simply stressful. Today they parked a truck right outside our garages which meant I could not manoeuvre so as to reverse and go down the wrong way – please note that since the road is blocked the only way to get out is the wrong way in reverse desperately trying not to hit a wall or other cars.
After managing to reverse and drive the wrong way down, I am usually faced with a cone blocking the road again. Then comes the female warden very reluctantly and begrudgingly to remove it. Sorry for wanting to pass through lady, but since the other side is blocked you know, I have no other choice!
On another occasion a truck was blocking the main road so one could not go down the parallel street St Elijah. Unfortunately there was no cone/warden to inform us the road was blocked so I drove all the way down only to have to reverse all the way up this narrow street and scratch my car in the process. The truck driver told me – “Heqq the cone was stolen hi, xi tridni naghmel”. I called the Local Council to complain the cone was missing. She was polite. The next day I saw they placed a bucket to block the road – progress I guess.
Another time all the roads were blocked due to a truck doing works on the main road and the warden actually told me to go up a one-way street so I could get home. This was after I drove around in circles twice or three times trying to figure out a possible way to drive home.
My point with this letter is – I know people are just doing their job and a couple of cranes blocking the roads in the same area isn’t illegal and permits are granted easily it seems – but if this private construction is going to happen to the detriment of residents every single day, could you at least make sure you organise yourselves well and be a little more helpful please?
The Local Council could make sure cones are in place as they should be, and that residents do actually have a route to get out and get back home. Despite the crane, the truck should not have been parked so as to block our garages and make life even more difficult. Wardens should actually help motorists and perhaps the council can grant crane permits only between 10am and 4pm.
Can someone tell us when this crane will be done from works on Carmel Street please? It seems to be a never-ending story.
Chris Hope
St Julian’s