Balluta car park a health hazard

It now seems that the Balluta car park is destined to get the go-ahead in spite of local residents' objections.

Apart from vague references to "significant traffic problems" and "resident parking problems" in the Sliema/St Julians area, there seems little clear justification for this car park as both these problems are related to over-development. It is time that it is realised that Sliema and St Julians will continue to have traffic problems as long as apartment blocks continue to be built. Adding a car park in St Julians will serve to attract more development, attract cars to an already polluted area and divert people away from public transport through continuing to encourage increased car use.

As a result of growing awareness of the threat to health from traffic pollution, the attitude in other countries is to discourage car use in cities, towns and highly urbanised areas. By contrast, Malta does exactly the opposite by building apartment blocks in already over-developed areas and causing inevitable traffic congestion (i.e. those so-called "significant traffic problems") and increasing the need for parking space. At the same time there is pious talk of transport reform as a means of "getting people out of their car". This simply will not happen as long as car use continues to be encouraged.

A more important aspect is that of health. From a public health point of view, this projected car park is unacceptable. People residing in the built-up areas of Malta are all exposed to the double health threat of increased cancer rates and premature death from traffic pollution on the one hand, and from lack of physical exercise with resultant obesity, maturity onset diabetes and premature heart and circulatory disease, on the other. This is particularly so in certain highly polluted areas in Malta - including Sliema and especially St Julians bay.

The streets adjoining Balluta Bay are already overloaded with traffic. Even if the profit motive makes a car park irresistible, this simply cannot - and must not - override adverse health consequences. This car park will result in a serious traffic impact on the surrounding streets, especially the uphill, one-way Old College Street. This relatively narrow street carries a huge volume of outgoing traffic exiting from Sliema and is phenomenally polluted. Residents in this road are particularly exposed to the risk of lung cancer and shortened life span. Also, children growing up in polluted areas are susceptible to lung damage from traffic emissions. These are scientifically proven facts. An environment impact assessment of the Balluta underground project must include the impact on traffic congestion, pollution and health. If health considerations are not included in assessing the benefit of this project, then this goes against the health interests of local residents.

The bottom line is this: The vicious cycle of increasing traffic congestion and the need for parking space through permitting construction of more apartment blocks simply cannot go on in the Sliema/St Julians area. Encouraging yet more car use by building car parks is counter-intuitive in terms of health, even in the best of conditions. The health of local residents is paramount and encouraging any increase in traffic can only serve to intensify the significant existing threat to health from pollution.

If the Sliema/St Julians councils opt to go ahead with this and other car parks, the only interpretation is that there is a profit motive which is wrongly receiving priority over everything else - including the health of the very residents whose interests they are supposed to uphold. The emphasis should be on making our streets more pedestrian-friendly and improving the attraction of public transport so that car dependency diminishes - adding car parks is not the way to go about this.