Thursday, 22nd May 2008
Bid to ban drinks on Paceville roads
Drinking in the streets of Paceville may soon stop altogether, following complaints by different stakeholders, the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprise - GRTU said.
Regulations to "completely" ban drinking in the streets, confining it to establishments that have chairs and tables outside, were in the pipeline, the President of the GRTU tourism, hospitality and leisure division, Philip Fenech, told The Times.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Mario de Marco, acknowledged that a number of complaints had been received by the police from all fronts: hotel owners; tourists themselves on the laissez-faire attitude and the bad image; residents and the St Julians local council. He said a legal notice, or a bye-law on the matter, would be issued soon.
The Malta Tourism Authority was in favour of putting a halt to drinking in the streets as this did nothing to enhance Malta's image, Dr de Marco said.
The fact that Paceville establishments have, over the last five years, been making an effort to forbid underaged persons from entering bars has resulted in their social displacement, with youths creating "eyesore" pockets on the outskirts and in certain areas in the centre, where they sit and drink - from anything but glass containers - in the streets, Mr Fenech explained.
He said the issue was discussed by then Social Policy Minister Dolores Cristina, the MTA from the tourism point of view, and the police, which have received complaints. Consultation on the matter has involved various bodies, including the GRTU, which looked into the effect on retail outlets.
Mr Fenech described the move as "social re-engineering to attain higher standards so that Paceville would not look like a disorganised party. It is healthy to have people gravitating in the area but it does not look good to have pockets of people drinking on ledges and car bonnets," he said.
If there were a feast in the area, a way out would be the possibility of filling in an application for a day, or a week, not to have to abide by the regulations. But streets where no drinking is allowed would be defined, he said.
Mr Fenech said the GRTU would continue talks with the MTA and the police to determine how to raise standards, without having less entertainment than other competing destinations and without doing damage to other segments of tourism that were yielding positive results. Meanwhile, works on Paceville's "dilapidated" main square and side streets would be starting again this week and the number of litter bins will be increased.
The GRTU was also involved in discussions on drinking at St George's Bay by night, which led to other abuse.
Police were supervising the area but things got heavy with the influx of English-language students in summer.
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Comments
I in a way agree with this new law as it is not fair for these so called bottle shops to sell drinks, then don't even provide the service of a toilet. nor should they be allowed to open till late hours. however all this mayhem is simply down to the police force, coz all they do is hang around in the piazza, smoking cigarettes instead of watching the streets.
Regarding all these comments where drinks are much more expensive in discos, its simple... the investment/running costs are so high in a club that if they had to charge bottle bar prices they wld never survive,so what is happening now is that people are getting drunk in bottle bars then go to clubs to urinate and enjoy the music/sound of top DJ's.
BUT..... one can observe the ever vigilant mobile unit police and flourescent police cars from far away serving as a deterrent for anyone who might have in mind breaking the law - They are -ALWAYS there- at every corner - walking by the pubs and making sure tthat order and pubic peace is kept .
Do we have this system here - I doubt it ?
One need to invest more in terms of human resources to cater for such a system to work.
As for drinks in the streets one must also add DRUNKS in the streets - young teens , boys and girls alike stoned to the point of unconsciousness lying on sidewalks with no one to attend to their needs.
I'm not a road drinker, but I have occasionally done it, I mean it is a Nightlife district.
Anybody who thinks Paceville will be more car friendly or less noisy is wrong. I personally think anybody who parks his car in an entertainment area on a busy night is asking for it.
So why compromise the safety of Residential areas, in order to clean up a nightlife district?
Like people won't start drinking on the road in Swieqi, st Julian's, Pembroke or St Andrews when they're all within a 15 minute walking distance from Paceville.
I find that some people agree on this, but many are willing to throw away little freedoms (Just as long as they are not indulging in them [selfishness] ).
Once this happens, business will suffer (paceville is not only choice), bars will be more overcrowded and hence more dangerous (the shaking cat and dog in a bag effect), bar prices will rise (competition will drop from the liquor stores), and residential area safety will be compromised all for...... Malta's Image.
How Shallow...
Please do note that those putting forward this complaint are not a health organisation such as Sedqa, not the Police to reduce crime, not the MTA to give a better image of our nation's streets, not WasteServ to reduce litter on streets, not the residents who want good night sleep on Saturday nights, yet they are GRTU, so this motion is profit minded. Apparentely the bars are facing fierce competition from the cornershops, so just to help the bar owners, the pressure group is trying to do something. If something is done, we just have to hope that it is done in the right way.
They use our front doors as toilets and the beauty is that if you challenge them they attack you as happend a few weeks ago. We call the police at least five times on a Saturday and most of the time the answer is that they cannot do anything as they are not enough, six policemen for all St. Julians and Paceville. It simply does not make any sense that we as residents have to go through all this, the Local council is hopeless, they say call the police , the polce say they cannot do anything and we are left prisoners in our houses and cannot sleep before the early hours in the morning. When is someone really going to help us, good joke.
Second the drinks these places ofer should be genuine and not mixed with water and other stuff.
Lately in PV the establishment are enforced to close at 4am.
The enforcement on smoking ban then was never really enforced.
Now the drinking in the streets.
What's next?
Tourists will definitely choose other destinations instead of Malta.
Yet the proposal strikes against my right to freedom. Why shouldn't I be free to hang around the bottle shops with my (plastic cup of) alcohol? Also it is well known amongst people who frequent Peaceville that drinks are far more expensive in discos. The GRTU's proposal can only be seen as a tactic to reduce the pressure of competition on these discos.
The GRTU should also recommend actions which improve the service given by these shoddy discos; such as providing toilets worth of human use. If overcrowding is an issue, I'd suggest that the GRTU encourages the laws of economics, that is for discos to start charging a price upon entry. I'm sure these young 'English Students' will not crowd the place if they were to pay. Other establishments around Malta (in Rabat and Ta Qali) offer a much better environment; the places are not as overcrowded, the toilets stink less (despite the fact that drinks still cost more than they should).
Where's Paceville? What may you expect to find in Paceville? Not just whether it's a bar or a disco, but rather detailed information and signage, styles and REAL attractions.
Much was said of the facelist that paceville had been given. What facelift? It is Better than it was but still far away from my idea of a nice place to unwind in the weekends.
Drinking on the roads, the holy grail of the GRTU! I'm sorry but I believe one must have a hard look and start asking why people drink on the road in Paceville. A few responses:
- bars too crowded, pickpockets, fights, SMOKING, music too loud, not enough fresh air,
- prices are too high
- drinks are watered down or of low quality
- no place is interesting enough.
A few pointers on these: What is being done to curb overcrowding? Is it real that bars are smoke-free? Who carries out quality control on alcoholic drinks? What action has been taken against pickpockets, fights, drunken youngsters / adults?
Do we want action only where our money is?
Start fixing some of these and then I may come back to Paceville.
Looking at an environmentalist point of view such a decision would reduce the amout of bottles and cans on the streets, but in the shoes of the person going out to paceville for the night, this is very idiotic. On saturday night, all the discos are cramped with people. to get from one end to the other of the disco, you probably spend 2 minutes pushing people around. This happens with people outside of discos having drinks outside. Can you imagine them in discos too?
Politicians should not be trusted with these kind of decisions. It goes against democracy. How come most of the people never have their say in such a matter?
This seems to me that the pubs and discos would be getting some good business from this, don't you? bottleshops had no say in this. Why do I have to get a beer from a disco for €2.23 when i can get it for €1 from outside?
I have to say that some of you people don't go to paceville!
WHY DON'T YOU ATTACK THE CLUB OWNERS FOR HAVING THERE DRINKS SO HIGH INSTEAD OF THE POEOPLE WHO DRINK THEM!!!
SORT IT OUT!
1 Why paceville only ?
2 Are we saying drinking anything or drinking alcohol?
3 Does GRTU represent all concerned ?
4 Does the MHRA have a say in this or Philip Fenech and Dr De Marco only?
I agree with banning DRINKING ALCOHOL in all streets of Malta not just certain areas in Paceville...About the periods of feasts that should be an exception (common sense).
Lets not touch certain traditions as well.The worst example was the mountains of mess with street drinking and loitering(spreading from paceville to the Balluta church) the next morning of the general election ,that is fine no problem.I never experienced such a mess.
Good one on the current works in Paceville(in front of Burger King)...how come Philip Fenech did not complain on the timing of the works ?
this bid is totally unacceptable for me for many many reason but mostly the basic demands a proper democracy poses! what about freedom of movement??? I am disgusted by the way these GRTU members are behaving. first their prices are double those one can find in a decent bar and know they're trying to kill everything else! these people already killed paceville (just compare the amount of people with those you would have found 10 years ago)
while realising that money means power and that therefore these arrogant people will probably have their way, i am writing here to make a protest! i personally stopped going to paceville for some time and hopefully more people will join me in this protest!
This move seems to be nothing than an attempt to compensate certain operators for the loss of business resulting from the smoking ban, not to mention the media hysteria orchestrated over 'underage drinking', real and imaginary.
Philip Fenech should be careful with advocating 'social engineering' (a dirty word anywhere other than Malta). Over-regulation will kill the golden egg.
I am quite sure that if they were to see the environment which prevails in Paceville with so many youngsters under 18 being allowed to buzz around with bottles in their hands including full size wine bottle:- They would most definitely re-think sending them here alone.
The business in Paceville, the Language schools, the families that host the many students that come her, the Police and all of us stand to gain.