Tigné Point and Sliema traffic

In his article Enough Mega Projects (June 26) Tony Zammit Cutajar repeats his mistaken assumption that Midi "had the gall to advocate the diversion of traffic so that it passes close to the shopping malls of the same development", even though we have on more than one occasion issued statements to the contrary in this newspaper and others.

In case he missed these, we would like to reiterate that Midi has never requested nor lobbied for any rerouting of traffic, or for the pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street or, for that matter, for any reduction in the number of parking spaces at The Strand. In fact we have specifically stated publicly that we are against the reduction of any parking spaces in Sliema whatsoever and feel that Sliema's traffic would be better served if Bisazza Street remained open to traffic as this would give motorists the option to choose between this or the Qui-Si-Sana route as they did in the past.

Should he be interested, Mr Zammit Cutajar can also easily verify that the construction of the public tunnel at Tigné was not part of some devious plan to divert traffic away from shops such as his on Tower Road but was one of the many obligations placed by the government on whoever was to be the successful bidder for the Tigné Point and Manoel Island project.

To conclude, I would like to add that we believe that the new shopping mall being constructed at Tigné Point will increase the overall appeal of the area's already successful retail offer and further endorse Sliema's reputation as the premier retailing destination on the island - whichever way ADT eventually decide to route traffic.