The mayor of Swieqi, Noel Muscat, has written directly to the Prime Minister Robert Abela demanding "determined and effective legislation and enforcement" to tackle the disorder plaguing the locality, after residents endured yet more sleepless nights.

A video clip is being circulated showing tourists screaming from the rooftops of short-let properties and hurling what appeared to be bottles down onto the street below, putting residents at risk. The letter was shared with this newspaper following our earlier report on the crisis.

The letter, addressed to the Prime Minsiter, was sent to residents by an administrator of the Swieqi Residents Facebook group, who said they were doing so "as instructed by the Mayor Noel Muscat."

In it, Muscat set out plainly what residents are enduring. "This is what residents in Swieqi are experiencing on a daily basis," he wrote. "Year in year out matters get worse." Scenes such as those captured in the clip, residents say, have become part of the day-to-day reality they have faced for years, but as the mayor told this newsroom in an earlier interview, the situation has only become this unlivable over the past year.

The mayor said the problems being raised were far from new, and that residents' patience had worn thin after a decade of unanswered complaints. "We have been reporting these problems for ten years!!!" he wrote. "I suppose that enough is enough."

Despite the frustration, Muscat struck a hopeful note about the possibility of change, telling the Prime Minister he trusted this appeal would finally be heeded. "I honestly hope that this time meaningful measures are taken," he wrote.

The mayor was also keen to acknowledge the agencies he felt had supported the locality so far, thanking the Malta Tourism Authority and the Community Police "for the tremendous assistance given to us," even as he pressed the case for stronger central government action.

Muscat was specific about what he believes is missing. "What we need is determined and effective legislation and enforcement," he wrote, adding that the council stood ready to work with government on a permanent fix. "We are determined to help and cooperate for a long term and lasting solution."

Its release follows this newspaper's earlier report detailing the mayor's account of escalating short-let-driven disorder in Swieqi, missed enforcement deadlines, and residents' own catalogue of noise, vandalism and indecent behaviour linked to tourist accommodation in the locality. Muscat had previously told this newspaper he felt "helpless" to act given the limits of the council's powers, and warned that without intervention the situation would continue to deteriorate.

The letter marks the mayor's most direct appeal yet to the country's most senior office, after months of what he and residents have described as inaction and buck-passing between ministries following the change of government and a change in the tourism portfolio. It remains to be seen whether the appeal will secure the response that a decade of local complaints, by the mayor's own account, has so far failed to achieve.