Traffic board had 'resisted' Cabinet decision over road

A traffic board had tried to resist the Cabinet's 2001 decision to turn a Gharghur road into a private one in order to accommodate two fireworks factories, but was forced to follow the order, The Times has learnt.

On April 30, 2001, the Home Affairs Ministry wrote to the then Traffic Control Board (the precursor of the current Traffic Directorate) informing it about the Cabinet's decision to close off traffic in St Catherine's Road, Gharghur, except to residents, farmers and those working at the two fireworks factories sited in the area.

The move, in effect, regularised the position of the two factories - Briffa and St Helen's, which last month exploded killing five people - which both breached the legally prescribed safe distance from any inhabited place or street that is "used regularly" by a good 130 metres.

According to an Ombudsman report, by closing the road to the public the government legally rendered the road one which is used "irregularly" and in so doing bypassed the regulations governing fireworks factory safety.

A reliable source who asked to remain anonymous has told The Times that the Traffic Control Board had tried to resist the move, making instead a case for the removal of the factories not only on safety grounds but also because the closure of the road would cause gross inconveniences to the residents of the area.

"Basically the board tried to talk some sense into the Cabinet but it was presented with a done deal and the board did not have any alternative but to follow the instructions," he said.

Residents are, in fact, being deprived of most services. A spokesman for the Water Services Corporation confirmed that the company has a problem with emptying cesspits in the area because their browser's driver was fined when he did.

The same is the case for gas distributors and other such essential services, angered residents explained. "Besides the proven danger to our lives, we are mostly worried about the cesspits and the health hazard they are posing," a resident said. "They're constantly overflowing with dirty water flowing into the road."

The government has so far refused to explain its decision and say why it has been so adamant to keep the fireworks factories where they were, despite their vicinity to the road and to nearby residences.

It even failed to comment on the news, reported in this newspaper last month, that the explosives committee had not been consulted by Cabinet before the factories were regularised.

Sources close to the pyrotechnics industry had told The Times that the St Helen and Briffa factories were likely to have been among other factories identified by a confidential 2004 report as "unsafe" factories due to their proximity to nearby roads and residences. The government has persistently refused to release this report.