The Opposition’s main spokesman for local government hit out at the government yesterday for having failed to commission work on more than 20 per cent of the streets that formed part of the 2006-2008 Residential Roads Programme.

Addressing a press conference in Triq Abela, Santa Venera, one of the dusty, potholed streets that the government promised to complete by 2008, Stefan Buontempo said that in 2006 Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had said work would be commissioned on 450 streets.

“It is a real shame that more than 20 per cent of these streets haven’t yet been completed and that residents have been living on dusty, potholed roads.

“Families cannot live in such conditions. The government gives the impression that it is committed to improving people’s quality of life, but this is a stark contrast to the way hundreds of families and road users have been neglected by the Nationalist government.”

He said the localities where work on residential roads hasn’t been completed are: Vittoriosa, Birżebbuġa, Dingli, Fgura, Għaxaq, Gudja, Gżira, Kalkara, Luqa, Marsa, Marsascala, Marsaxlokk, Mellieħa, Mosta, Mqabba, Naxxar, Pieta’, Qrendi, Rabat, Safi, St Julian’s, St Paul’s Bay, Santa Luċija, Santa Venera, Tarxien, Żabbar, Żebbuġ, Żejtun and Żurrieq.

The Labour MP added that Transport Malta had identified other residential roads requiring construction. Dr Buontempo said the ones that fulfilled the 70 per cent built-up Transport Malta requirement had to be completed by mid-2012.

He appealed to the government to stop fooling the people living on these streets, saying that some families have been paying the road contribution for the past 20 years, hoping that the government would commission work on the streets they live in.

“Some of the roads that formed part of the 2006-2008 programme were financed and completed by local councils instead, even though the central government was meant to have commissioned the work itself.”

Dr Buontempo also expressed concern that residential roads completed by Transport Malta have now fallen under the responsibility of local councils, but the government hasn’t allocated enough funds for maintenance work to be carried out.

The Labour MP appealed to the new minister responsible for local councils, that is the Prime Minister, to ensure that work is immediately commissioned on the residential roads that formed part of the 2006-2008 list that haven’t yet been done, to avoid further inconvenience and suffering to hundreds of residents.