Squaring the circle is needed in order to bring some sense to the systemic mismatch between the way roads are categorised and the financing available for the upkeep of Malta’s main roads.

If you are a driver who drives through Sliema you must be shocked at the state of some of the roads. Like me, you must wonder how it is possible that a main road like Manwel Dimech Street is completely lop-sided and full of areas which have caved in. Rightly so, you will blame authorities, and as Lino Spiteri aptly put it in his column of June 9, you must be fed up with driving on a surface which resembles that of the moon.

Allow me to put this matter in the context of Malta’s policy-making with respect to road maintenance, and I am here not making an attempt to shrug off responsibility. I would in fact very much wish that the matter could be resolved by us councillors, but it cannot, in view of a baffling anomaly which has existed for many years.

Transport Malta is responsible for the arterial and distributor road network, as classified by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in 1992 and as established in the National Structure Plan. There are no roads passing through Sliema which feature in the arterial and distributor road network, not a single one. Tower Road, Qui-si-Sana seafront, the Strand and Manwel Dimech are not defined as arterial and distributor.

The list available on Transport Malta’s website includes less frequented roads, which leads to the obvious conclusion that the arbitrary exercise incorrectly omits many a main road in Sliema, and other localities for that matter. By way of comparison Cospicua has nine roads while Attard has six which are considered arterial roads.

Not a single road in Sliema is the responsibility of central government to resurface, or as would be necessary in the case of Manwel Dimech and others, to reconstruct. This warped delineation of roads results in the Sliema council being expected to cover all works related to the entire Sliema road network.

Like me, you must wonder how it is possible that a main road like Manwel Dimech Street is completely lop-sided and full of areas which have caved in

This situation is further compounded by the fact that budgets for councils are not worked out on the basis of particular responsibilities but through a formula which does not take into account the specificities of the locality.

In other words Sliema council does not have a budget for road works which corresponds to its road infrastructure and traffic patterns. We in fact have no budget whatsoever for roads, but just one lump sum as a general budget which only allows us to cover the costs of a couple of side street resurfacing works.

We wrongly accuse the European Union (one MEP in particular) of a one-size-fits-all policy-making when we do just that with the way budgets are allocated to our councils.

PN governments in post-EU membership oversaw the unprecedented reconstruction of major road networks. The much needed infrastructural improvement has indirectly served to highlight the general poor state of the remaining major road network. This state of affairs cannot be left to persist and permanent solutions are required, rather than one-off schemes. Central government and Transport Malta need to go back to the drawing board in order to redefine which roads are earmarked as arterial and distributor.

As to the remaining roads, each council ought to be given a separate budget for road works based on actual resurfacing and reconstruction requirements. This formula should also take into account the level of traffic in the locality which will naturally impinge on the wear and tear of each street.

We simply cannot manage our road network in this manner by having an entire major urban centre’s roads in the hands of the local council, while at the same time failing to have an annual financial mechanism which enables the council to undertake such work.

Should the deficiencies I have outlined not be addressed, the roads in our busy localities will remain the moon driving experience they have degenerated into.

paul.radmilli@gov.mt

Paul Radmilli is a Sliema local councillor.

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