Keep the buses running

We have recently returned from our fifth holiday to this wonderful island, and wish to thank everyone for such a warm welcome in Malta and Gozo.

We stay in Triq Gandoffli, Bugibba, each time and find the locality very much to our liking. Everyone welcomes us back each time and they always seem to remember us from the previous visit, in one case over a year before.

We always feel that we have almost "come home again", such is the welcome we get.

But each time we see a little increase in the development on the island, this to be expected so long as it doesn't spoil Malta's natural charm. There are plenty of places as yet undeveloped.

We don't really agree with the letter by Paul Vella (High-rise For Bugibba, April 27) that high-rise blocks are the best. A balance must be maintained so as to preserve the older parts as well as building the new.

This also applies to your wonderful buses.

The new ones are comfortable but a ride on the older ones has to be taken. In the UK, when one mentions Malta, everyone asks whether or not the old buses are still running.

In the UK, we have our Heritage Railways (and a few old buses and trams) that we make visits to. In Malta you have the buses. It is as much part of the holiday to travel on them as it is to explore the coastline by boat, and to sample the food.

So long may they be kept running!