Transport Minister blames bad roads on Labour

Transport Minister Austin Gatt yesterday admitted he was not happy with the state of the roads, although he tried to blame the situation on work done by previous Labour governments.

He admitted that in its 20 years in power, subsequent Nationalist governments had not managed to solve the "big problems" of roads built during Labour administrations.

He said a number of the roads built before 1987, including the infamous St Paul's Bay bypass, were problematic.

"I am surely not happy with the state of the roads," he said as he looked back at his ministry's work over the past year.

However, the minister's admission of less than perfect roads comes as little solace to disgruntled motorists. Readers of timesofmalta.com had in February voted Sliema Road, San Ġwann, as the worst road in Malta following downpours which multiplied the number of potholes.

Dr Gatt yesterday said one of the problems was the lack of certainty of future contracts which made companies reluctant to invest in advanced machinery, a move which would make a big difference to the final product. He said where roads were well-built, as in the case of EU-funded projects there were no potholes and no flooding problems.

Dr Gatt said a solution would be to pool all resources in order to spend money more efficiently, including through a private-public partnership which allowed the private sector to invest more in equipment and provide more value for money.

He referred to a similar partnership that existed in Portsmouth where the contractor had to fix a pothole within an hour that it was identified. He excluded that such a partnership would lead to the introduction of road tolls.

Dr Gatt said the proposed pilot project for transport reform in Gozo had been dropped because it was unsustainable. He said introducing new buses that were less than 15 years old, while increasing frequency and improving services, would incur a €1.9 million loss.

Gozo would be integrated within the tender for Malta to balance out the loss. If everything went according to plan, the call for tenders should be issued this summer. The Public Transport Association recently submitted a request for compensation following a failure to reach an agreement about the reform.

Association president Victor Spiteri yesterday said bus owners had been promised a 10-year contract or compensation before last year's election, and although they wanted a guarantee of work, they had no choice but to ask for compensation.

Dr Gatt said the authorities were looking into incorporating the four transport entities - the Malta Transport Authority, the Malta Maritime Authority, the Department of Civil Aviation and the Malta Freeport Association - into one body which should lead to improved synergy and integration.

Little mention was made of the new water and electricity tariffs, although when questioned Dr Gatt said he had received complaints from people about their bills.

Dr Gatt said work was under way to set up a local register for planes aiming to achieve the same success of Malta's shipping register. The first version of the law should be available next month, he said. Studies were also being carried out to determine where temporary and permanent yacht marinas could be built.