Cospicua, or Bormla as the Maltese call it, is one of the Three Cities and enormously proud of it. At the same time, the town and its residents are extra sensitive to what they may perceive as slights.

This town, as all who pass through it or visit it these days, is preparing to celebrate its annual festa next week. This it does with a lot of pomp but also a lot of trepidation due to the vagaries of the weather which many times forces the cancellation of the external celebrations or their postponement.

So while the church is being sumptuously prepared for the festa, the outdoor festa decorations are usually held back a little, until the final days show what kind of weather one is to expect.

All the above shows that the people of Cospicua in these last days of November and the beginning of December, are more tense than normal.

This year, however, they have an extra reason to be tense and angry about.

The works regarding the landscaping works of Dock One have meant that the road from the Gavino Gulia Square to the Vittoriosa roundabout has been up in total disruption for the past months. At least that was the situation just a few days back. This is outrageous.

The works, one has to clarify, are not the actual works to create something out of the Dock One area. That is still undecided and must wait for the proper decisions to be taken.

The current works are for the landscaping of the entire stretch of shore from Xatt ir-Risq and the Freedom Monument in Vittoriosa all the way to Gavino Gulia Square and then on to part of the foreshore leading to the Macina.

The work on the foreshore is rather complicated and has taken long. The parking of cars at Xatt ir-Risq has been stopped, thus adding to the parking pressure on the entire area.

But it is the roadworks that have taken far too long and that have severely inconvenienced people. Even now that the festa is getting near, there is still no sign that at least the road, the pavements, the roadway itself are anywhere near being ready to welcome the people who will throng Cospicua on the festa day.

It does not take rocket science to do up a road, but still this particular job has taken far too long and those responsible must hang their heads in shame.

At one point, for days on end, there were no workers to be seen doing anything.

The situation was also dangerous and holes were left tripping people up. There was at least one accident in which a person fell because of this mess and subsequently died.

The little that the public was told about the reasons for this delay was there seemed to have been some kind of incomprehension or dissent between the contractor and a sub-contractor. Whatever the reason, however, there was no reason for all this almighty delay.

Besides, one suspects, the works done are related to the Dock One restoration but the area suffers from many problems, mainly as a result of World War II which flattened the entire area, and one suspects that some time down the line the entire road and the streets and alleys going into the Cospicua heartland will have to be re-dug up to do a corrective exercise.

Cospicua is also in the electoral district from which Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi got elected. There are some rumours that Dr Gonzi is considering contesting in the First District in the coming election, but his family has always been considered as a Cottonera one, from his grand-uncle, the doughty Archbishop Gonzi, to Dr Gonzi’s own parents.

This might be the time for Dr Gonzi to take this particular hard task on himself, just as he did on the Arriva business. Dr Gonzi did this in a different context with Skanska and the Mater Dei Hospital, and he must get the job done himself, mainly by using his prime ministerial power and/or by knocking a few heads together. Otherwise, he must avoid going to the festa or he will be held accountable to this gross deficiency of his government.