It was unacceptable that a serious and increasingly acute problem such as traffic congestion was being met with a string of knee-jerk recommendations in the hope that these turn out to be effective, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said.

It noted in a statement that only one sentence in the 14-page white paper ‘School Opening Hours and Traffic Congestion’ referred to delivery vans and vaguely suggested that “services delivered by heavy vehicles should not coincide with the heavy morning traffic time”.

The chamber said it felt that the lifeline of Malta’s business community deserved more than one line in a 14-page document.

"The problem of traffic congestion will not be solved by passing the parcel from one sector to the other.

"Malta deserves a holistic plan for transportation which includes an efficient public transport system, a European-level road network and better observance of traffic laws by all involved, in order for traffic to flow more smoothly."