In my letter of the 21 July, 2011, I had drawn the attention of the mayor of St Paul’s Bay to a serious accident that happened a few days earlier on Triq il-Qawra, St Paul’s Bay, when an Arriva bus drove over a pavement before hitting the façade of a residence. The façade of the dwelling suffered extensive damage.

This is not the first time that a vehicle smashed into the façade of this residence. In this stretch of the road some drivers have the habit of driving over the pavement to overtake vehicles in front of them, even if road markings clearly prohibit such manoeuvres of the perilous kind.

This persistent serious infringement is putting at risk users of the pavement and residents in the house that bear the brunt of such serious contraventions.

Following my intervention of two months ago in my capacity as secretary of the Labour Party of St Paul’s Bay together with that of the Customer Care Department of the Labour Party, Arriva’s insurance company carried out the necessary repairs to the façade of the damaged residence.

I also appealed to the mayor of the local council to take all necessary measures as a matter of urgency to better protect the users of the pavement and the residents of the dwelling.

It was only on 24 October, 2011, three whole months after my appeal, that I received an e-mail from the executive secretary of the local council informing me that my complaint has now been forwarded to Transport Malta for them to find a solution to the persistent danger.

I have to ask: Did the local council need three full months just to pass on my complaint on a matter that puts life and limb at risk, to another authority? Is this yet another example how the local council, led by a Nationalist Party majority, comes across as allowing a crawling bureaucracy to treat important matters with a frustrating sense of inefficiency and insensitiveness to the realities of the various sectors of our community?

Neville Gafà

Secretary, PL St Paul’s Bay