Tigné Point operator Midi Plc yesterday said it had “never requested nor put pressure on the government or any other authority to pedestrianise Bisazza Street or to reduce parking at The Ferries in Sliema”.

It said that the ideal solution would have been to open both Bisazza Street and the Qui-si-Sana seafront routes to allow motorists to choose between them, as they did in the past. This would ultimately reduce the congestion created by funnelling all of Sliema’s arterial traffic through one route.

It also said that if the authorities insisted on closing Bisazza Street, then Tigné seafront had to be regulated as it currently was “choked with a combination of herringbone parking, double-parked cars hovering for vacant spaces, an unofficial double-decker sightseeing tour bus terminus and other hindrances which really should have been seen to before the tunnel was opened”.

Meanwhile, Michael Briguglio, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman and former Sliema councillor, said that buses should pass through the Qui-si-Sana and Tigné seafronts to make it easier for residents to access public transport.