Residents' hell

My wife and I are elderly and live in Triq Patri Wistin Born, Marsascala. It used to be a peaceful street, with airy villas in the vicinity. But for more than 16 months now it has been hell, and it looks as it will be so for another three or four years at least.

The villa opposite our house, the one next door, and another one three doors down the road have been knocked down to build monstrous six-storey concrete blocks instead. This is causing us extreme stress, frustration and suffering and is ruining our health.

In spite of keeping all doors and windows permanently shut, there is dust everywhere... on the furniture, the floor, electronic equipment, the roof not to mention the cars and expensive decorative plants in our front garden and yards. My wife suffers from asthma and I get allergic reactions, so we have to consult doctors and have medication regularly as a result.

At 6 a.m., monstrous machinery starts its infernal noise in the street, every working day of the week, waking us up two hours before our normal time. The din goes on all day, often reaching such high levels that we are forced to leave our home to rest inside a garage. The deafening hammering of rock cutting and concrete jackhammering is badly affecting our hearing and peace of mind.

Our once clean and orderly street is now blocked by monstrous cranes, lorries and concrete mixers, which make the road filthy with spilt oil and cement washed out of the mixers. The pavement is shut off with a barrier, or so blocked with loose stones that it cannot be used. The parking spaces are taken up with enormous cranes, so that residents have to park two or three blocks away, and often park right in front of our garage, blocking our cars.

When the villa next door was knocked down with bulldozers and jackhammers, our house shook as if hit by an earthquake. The walls on one side of the house have been badly damaged, with stonework broken loose, plaster falling off, wall tiles working loose, ceilings showing cracks, and archways threatening to collapse. All this is accentuated when rock-cutting goes on.

Is this fair? Is this kind of abuse condoned by our politicians and the EU?

We have complained to the local council, to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and other authorities. All we are told is that the workers have a permit for demolishing villas and building the blocks that will overshadow our house and throw our home into permanent gloom. The value of our property has been halved.

With over 60,000 empty residences already on the island, what is this madness of destroying once beautiful streets to turn them into ghostly slums?

We know very well that this is a huge problem with hundreds of other Maltese, if not thousands, and expect that this attack on the quality of life and tranquillity of residents in already densely inhabited areas be stopped straightaway.