Pigeons leave their mark on new Valletta hard stone paving

Shopkeepers have expressed their distaste for the new, easily sullied white paving in Valletta, but a flurry of complaints is aimed at the pesky pigeons.

Pigeon droppings litter areas of South Street, one of the streets recently repaved in hard stone, much to the annoyance of shopkeepers in the area.

Two shopkeepers, equipped with a bucket and broom, were attempting to scrub off the excrement but it was all in vain – the paving had already been stained.

“Birds always left their droppings in the area, but now it shows more against the clear background,” Willy Galea, a shopkeeper, said.

The problem for Mr Galea and neighbouring shopkeepers is that the ubiquitous avian droppings penetrate the surface and leave a stain. The new paving is also very prone to dirt, having turned from white to a dirty shade of grey in days.

And while the shopkeepers are generally happy with the new layout of the road, which did away with pavements and afforded more space to pedestrians, especially those using wheelchairs and pushchairs, they were concerned with the high level of dust in the air.

Dorianne Cachia, a salesgirl at a stationery on South Street said: “They worked on the street but they haven’t cleaned it yet. We can’t be cleaning it ourselves, what with higher water and electricity tariffs and all.”

A reader of The Times wrote in this week questioning who in their “right senses” would choose a whitish tile to pave these streets. The lighter colour of the stone and its propensity to easily get dirty has led people to question why it was used in the first place, especially when compared to the darker stone used in other streets across the capital, such as Republic Street, Merchants Street and St Christopher Street.

“I was quite disillusioned by the colour of the street,” Mr Galea said.

Asked about the reasoning behind this choice, a government spokesman said the materials were part of a Valletta paving master plan. All this was done in conjunction with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, the spokesman added.

“Traditional paving was hard stone; there are some areas where lava was used in the past and lava is being reutilised in these areas,” he said.

“Other alternatives would have deviated from the concept that we are treating a World Heritage Site and we need to respect the way our city was transmitted to us.”