Mayor denies discrimination

St Julians mayor Peter Bonello is refuting “gratuitous accusations” of discrimination against Ta’ Giorni housing estate residents levelled against him by the Labour Party.

Labour have accused Mr Bonello of discriminating against Ta’ Giorni housing estate residents by not including the streets in the area, which were in a bad state, in a public-private partnership scheme which would see residential roads being redone.

“The mayor decided on his own which streets were to be done up under the public-private partnership scheme,” party spokesmen Stefan Buontempo and Roderick Galdes said in a news conference held in the area. This was a “clear case of discrimination” against the 500 people living there, most of whom, they added, were known to support the PL.

The mayor insists the road works under the scheme were to be done in two separate batches, one of which included 11 roads in the Ta’ Giorni area.

This was done, Mr Bonello said, “to avoid as much as possible inconvenience to the public by having too many roads being resurfaced simultaneously”.

He said the council’s architect “was given instructions to establish which roads, including (those in) Ta’ Giorni, needed urgent resurfacing”.