I refer to the article ‘Architects forget to include bulbs in Żebbuġ Road tender’ (The Sunday Times, February 24). The author of this article was either misinformed or misinterpreted the facts about this issue.

Contrary to what is alleged in this article Med Design Associates as consultants to the Żebbuġ council did not forget to include the bulbs in the Zebbug road tender. Indeed item 1 of Bill H for Street Lighting of the tender documents states the following:

“Supply, transport, install and connect to electrical system light poles and respective luminaries as shown in the attached details”.

Tendereres who submitted their bids for this contract quoted for this item. However on the advice of our street lighting consultant in our tender adjudication report our architect stated that “bidders do not comply with the tender requirements in Bill H” and proposed that either the bidders be asked to resubmit information or else issue a new separate tender for the street lighting.

The local council did not heed our advice but awarded this tender as submitted.

At this stage it is worth pointing out that in its original state Vjal il-Helsien was very poorly lit and in our upgrading proposal we also included the upgrading of the street lighting system so as to ensure not only adequate lighting for the road but also adequate lighting for persons walking on the footpath.

Unfortunately, in Malta when discussing footpaths we only insist on standards for persons with mobility problems but tend to forget those people who have vision problems and require adequate lighting to ensure safe passage during the night. It is for this reason that we suggested that for the first time in Malta footpaths should be lit separately.

Eventually when Enemalta was requested to supply power to the newly installed lighting poles they stated that since there is an increase in power consumption their substation could not take this additional load. (The increase in power consumption was due to the fact that we had to increase the number of luminaries to ensure that the poorly lit road is adequately lit).

We therefore suggested that we change the luminaries to LED which consume much less electricity. According to our consultant’s solution they consume the same amount of electricity as the previous lighting system. Once again Enemalta were not happy with this solution.

I really cannot understand why this type of street lighting should pose a problem. The level of lighting in a street depends on the type of street i.e. there is a difference between lighting an arterial road and a residential road. In this case this is the main road leading to the centre of Żebbuġ and in our opinion the lighting of this street needs to reflect the importance of this street to Żebbuġ.

Once a design respects international standards for such streets I cannot understand why Enemalta should object to any proposal especially if no extra load is being imposed on the existing power structure.

The delay in installing the luminaries is a result of protracted negotiations between Enemalta, the Żebbuġ council assisted by their consultants.

Finally the local council has agreed to our proposal in the tender adjudication report to issue a separate tender for street light-ing. Hopefully this will resolve the inconvenience that the residents of Żebbuġ and of this street in particular had to endure due to the intransigence and bureaucracy of Enemalta.