A number of business owners have filed a court application seeking damages over the length of time one of Mosta’s main roads was subject to roadworks.

Triq il-Kbira, which stretches from close to Ta’ Qali to the Mosta square, was subject to the start of roadworks in 2020, they said, arguing that the road first closed in November of that year, only to reopen in December 2022.

The 12 applicants, whose businesses are situated along the road, filed the case against Infrastructure Malta, Transport Malta, the Mosta Local Council, Carmel Vella Ltd. as well as the Mosta mayor, Architect Christopher Grech.

The case is expected to hold its first sitting on 6 July, 2023.

The applicants say that they had all built a strong goodwill in their respective businesses, up until in 2020 when the defendants decided to embark on infrastructural works “without any plan, logic or seriousness.” They described the works as being done carelessly and with inexperience.

The applicants also complained that due to the works, they suffered a substantial loss of business, and loss of goodwill, aside from damages.

They argued that the due to the “total absence of planning” of the infrastructural works, works went on for years, and that the street had to be dug up twice.

It was reported in August 2022, that new asphalt that was laid in order for the road to be opened for Mosta’s feast of St. Mary had to be dug up as heavy rainfall that same month put a spanner in the works, with flooding affecting the area, leading to some of the newly laid asphalt to break up. News reports read that some business owners had complained about water leakages into their establishments, with some saying that something like that had never happened prior to the start of the roadworks.

The applicants in this court application said that despite understanding the scale and importance of the project, the roadworks were carried out by only two or three persons. They said that this explains part of the reason for the delay, in addition to other reasons such as the “amateurish and negligent manner in which the work was planned, managed and executed.”

The shop owners say that they were also ignored when they complained to the defendants over the infrastructural works which were carried out “without measure, without any prudence and without end.”

They said that not only was there no adequate traffic diversion plan made for the duration of the works, but there was also no contingency plan made which could be triggered in case the works took longer than expected.

“It is obvious that the defendants acted exactly the opposite of how a good father of a family acts,” the applicants said.

The applicants said that their appeals to the defendants were for nothing. They presented judicial protests against the defendants in May and September 2022. Nevertheless, they said the defendants did not fulfil their obligations

The applicants claim that Mosta mayor also ridiculed them, specifically two business owners, when they complained to him about the impact of the lack of planning on their business.

The business owners continued to suffer further damages, losing business, work and loss of profits, the court application read.

The application calls on the court to declare the defendants as responsible for the damages suffered by the applicants, as a result of carrying out work “with negligence, incompetence, non-observance of regulations, with a lack of diligence and prudence, including actual damages and lost profits.” They also call on the court to liquidate the damages, and to order the costs of the judicial protests filed in May and September 2022 to be paid by the defendants.

The case was filed by lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Kris Busietta, Elaine Sammut and Karl Micallef.