Something is amiss at St Paul's Bay

While thanking Cynthia Misokova, policy coordinator in the Parliamentary Secretariat for Consumers, Fair Competition, Local Councils and Public Dialogue, for her explanation as to why Qawra and Buġibba cannot be considered small localities, I assure the writer that I will be contacting her in view of setting up a meeting.

However, I would like to point out the following:

I must stress at the offset that although the mayor of the St Paul's Bay council is extremely efficient in the execution of her duties, bearing in mind the limitations of funds available to her as well as the poor state of affairs left to her by the previous council administration, as far as one ascertains the problem is that the area is too vast and highly populated to be controlled by one District Council with an office some distance away.

The explanation that the parliamentary secretariat claimed that they have provided never filtered to the residents of these localities and certainly does not seem to solve the problems of total negligence that exists in the area including the ever increasing and unruly number of drivers who seem to want to challenge and defy the traffic laws and drive contrary to the one-way systems.

It is very clear to all that Qawra and Buġibba have been the poor relations to St Paul's Bay since the inception as can be seen by the poor state this area is kept in, especially when compared to the village of St Paul's Bay, hence something is amiss in respect of the funds allocated for the area or they are not being spent within the area.

I can also assure the Parliamentary Secretariat that all the local residents and business fraternity are looking for is to instigate proper management of the services provided to suit the resort and invoke pride within these areas, and if the present administration chooses to give the area its own local council, they can be assured that this will work in favour of the residents of Qawra and Buġibba.