Owners of outlets in one of Mosta’s busiest roads have filed a court application, claiming they should be compensated as road works in front of their business have affected their livelihood and caused them damages because of the length of time it has taken and the haphazard way it was being carried out.

Work in Triq il-Kbira, which stretches from close to Ta’ Qali to the Mosta square, started in 2020 but in what seemed like a never-ending project, meant that the closure of the area closest to the church cost them “a substantial loss of business”.

(One here would also add so much inconvenience to the traffic flow, and an important link between the centre of Mosta towards the north was cut off.)

In the application, filed against Infrastructure Malta, Transport Malta, the Mosta local council, the Mosta mayor, Carmel Vella Ltd and architect Christopher Grech, the outlets argued that there was a “total absence of planning”, and that the work was being carried out “carelessly and with inexperience”.

A first sitting of the case is slated for 6 July.

It is not the intention of this editorial to discuss this particular issue. It will be up to the court to hear both sides of the story – hopefully, in the shortest time possible – and to reach a conclusion.

But we are using this case to highlight the need for more accountability, and also the fact that the culture of lawsuits in search for compensation because of shoddy or lengthy work is slowly making inroads into our ways.

And this is how it should be.

Too often, in the past people used to let go, even when they suffered damages at the hand of third parties. In more recent years, they know they have rights and, if they feel that these rights have been trampled upon, or if they have suffered the consequences of others’ inaction or carelessness, they are seeking reparation.

This has meant more work for the law courts, and if this new way of thinking picks up, the number of cases before magistrates and judges will eventually grow.

But it also means that there should be more accountability, starting from the government and its entities, agencies and authorities, and going right down to the companies they employ for their projects, and their workers. It would also involve more accountability for local councils, who should see that projects they embark upon are carried out properly and within an established timeframe, causing the least inconvenience to residents as possible.

It has happened too often, and still continues to happen, that public areas that fall under the responsibility of the central government or local councils are in a state of disrepair, or cases when projects start but take much longer than necessary to be completed. We can just mention potholes in the roads or broken pavements just to give a couple of examples, but there are other equally serious or frustrating situations on which the people responsible should be held accountable.