St Paul’s Bay, an essentially tourist resort and attraction for the Maltese people, is fast becoming a purely “drive-through’’ destination.

Restaurant owners and proprietors advertise tempting menus of widely varied cuisine to attract clients, both visitors and residents.

What is the point?

Would-be clients answer the call to dine or to enjoy the delights offered...But they cannot park to use the facilities! Every little bar takes parking places in the road to lay out extra tables and chairs. Now, they can’t fill any part of their premises. Most of those that are surviving, are empty inside. Where can potential customers leave their cars in order to use these bars and restaurants?

The whole area of St Paul’s Bay is dying! Now, at the beginning of the main tourist season, almost the full length of the promenade between Buġibba and Ta’ Fra Ben is taped off for construction/embellishment work and this will include the closure of the car park at Ta’ Fra Ben. In summer?

Drive-through is becoming the only option, with bumper-to- bumper traffic and fewer and fewer places to stop. Near Wignacourt...150 parking places now lost and still that work is incomplete.

What can we expect from the tourists (not forgetting the Maltese people) but criticism? One big, ongoing, eyesore instead of somewhere to walk, relax and enjoy.