I was recently having a conversation with an English teacher who teaches mature foreign students at a language school. The teacher was recounting a particular lecture during which she asked her students what their general opinion of Malta was.

To her evident satisfaction they all commented positively on the weather, the friendliness of the people, our safety record and various other factors.

However, there was consensus on one big negative factor (which would put them off coming back to Malta on holiday the lack of cleanliness. This comment hurt the teacher and also hurt me when it was related. But we must all admit that Malta sometimes looks like a one big dump site.

Dump sites are prevalent around the countryside, litter is everywhere – from busy thoroughfares to side streets and villages cores – road signs are often broken, garbage is often taken out at all hours even in popular tourist resorts, and so on.

The infrastructure is a mess and most roads are in a depressingly bad state while pavements and boundary walls are often broken or in a poor state of repair.

St Julian’s, just a minute away from Portomaso, is a mess. The pavements are black with gum and oil stains, traffic management is a disaster, the roads are badly damaged and the whole area is an image out of Africa.

It is almost unbelievable how our prime spot can be left in such a poor condition, especially when all that business flows through the area.

The problem is prevalent throughout Malta. In Qormi, just a minute away from both the banks’ headquarters, the infrastructure is such a mess that it beggars belief.

We had been promised a general clean-up by successive governments but it never materialised. I cannot fathom how this state of affairs doesn’t bother politicians and government officials who can actually do something to fix it.