Is St Julians going the way of Paceville? (1)
I was awoken from my well-deserved afternoon nap on Workers' Day by loud percussive music. Thinking it was some truckload of young people celebrating I yawned and expected it to stop. Imagine my surprise when it went on and on, and I was told by the...
I was awoken from my well-deserved afternoon nap on Workers' Day by loud percussive music. Thinking it was some truckload of young people celebrating I yawned and expected it to stop. Imagine my surprise when it went on and on, and I was told by the local police station that it was a "party" permitted to run at the Tiguillio car park from 3 p.m. to midnight.
It turned out that despite my obeying a call to make a report in person at the station, the police were unable to do anything about the noise, since they could not ascertain whether the noise was too loud. They unconvincingly scribbled my details down on the back of a used piece of paper, and I was sent off.
As a citizen, however, that leaves many questions unanswered. The event seemed to be part of the ongoing open-air football screenings going on in the piazza. How could the authorities consider that exposing residents to a couple of hours twice a week of football sounds, in order to promote sports (a good in itself), and subjecting them to much louder percussive music for nine hours on a public holiday dedicated to workers' rest, for the sake of certain parties selling more beer, are the same thing? Should hundreds of families, and the owners and patrons of restaurants all over the area, have to suffer for the pleasure of not more than 50 young people and the financial gain of a few?
Was this event sponsored by public authorities? Were permit conditions included to ensure that noise levels were kept within acceptable limits? Should the police not be able to check that noise levels are within those limits by using hand-held devices? What mechanisms are in place to protect citizens in their own homes from such levels of sensory aggression, particularly the sick, the infirm and the aged?
St Julians, with its weekend crowds, its noise, its dirt and certain commercial enterprises gaining greater and greater confidence to dominate and despoil whole areas, is fast following in the footsteps of its sad daughter Paceville.
If the aim of the authorities is to ensure that anyone who can, leaves this once-pleasant town, they are well on their way to success, particularly following episodes such as this May Day's fiasco.