I’d like to live in a country where the right to a good night’s sleep is sacred; where the powers-that-be understand that property owners and residents have a first claim on their streets and a right to peace and quiet; where complaints about noise are therefore taken seriously by the police – and local councils do not create part of the problem.

I’d love to live in a country so clean that it would be inconceivable to throw even the tear-tape of a pack of cigarettes onto the street, let alone the butt; a country where the real evils of fly-tipping are subject to strict enforcement and vigorous prosecution. And I’d like nothing more than a country where trees grow in abundance and are protected.

But perhaps I’m asking too much.After all, I don’t live in Germany, Denmark or the Netherlands. I live in the EU’s noisiest, densest (and probably most litter-infested) country. Welcome to my country and world. Malta. The little island in the Mediterranean where noise and litter reign supreme. Where trees, already in short supply, are uprooted to make way for petrol stations. And welcome to Sliema and St Julian’s – my neck of the woods. But no woods to speak of: just two towns ruined by noise and litter.

The problems of noise and litter are everywhere, and the time to bring them up is always right. So I won’t be apologising. And, if Facebook is anything to go by, we seem to be in the thick of the problem. But then it’s high summer and Sliema Arts Festival time.

This “awesome festival” (quote, unquote) has just come and gone, leaving behind the usual detritus – none of it cultural. Instead, plastic containers, cans, bottles, food, vomit and urine have lined the promenade and beaches all weekend, and by Monday morning, July 18, the build-up was acute.

I question whether Sliema and its residents are culturally richer for the festival. But I’m pretty sure they’re sleep-deprived and furious at having to put up with amplified music until 2am (or later) and then, the ‘morning after’, the awful litter. Because you see, whatever the permits might say and whatever the local council might promise, the reality is always different. It is extraordinary that an event like this is allowed to take place at all, without the consent of the residents, among whom I’m pretty sure not even a 50 % + 1 majority would be in favour.

I’m not alone in thinking it a disgrace. The Sliema council should quit congratulating itself

My feeling is that streets and public places should be kept as neutral as possible – which is not the same as dull. I just can’t bear imposition of any sort, someone else’s exclusive interest shoved down your throat and public spaces appropriated and trashed.

If the Sliema ‘Arts’ Festival was a subtle and classy affair – foreign films, a string quartet, book-signings, unobtrusive jazz musicians and genuine local artists strutting their stuff until a decent and ‘resident-friendly’ hour, then I’d probably concede the appropriation for a couple of days. But this was plain loud and obtrusive – cultural exclusion and public misappropriation at their best (or worst) – and it went on far longer than promised.

On July 11, the council sent a circular to Tower Road residents announcing the festival programme and thanking everyone in advance for their cooperation. What presumption! First of all they got the dates wrong: Friday, the opening day, was in fact the 15th, not the 17th, which is when the festival ended not started.

Secondly, the assertion that “no amplified music will be allowed to be played on the promenade at any hour of the day or night” was misleading and even deceptive.

On July 11, the beach was already decked out in all its ‘electronic gizmo’ glory, cluttered with parked trucks, stacks of deckchairs and umbrellas, a stage upstaging a huge chunk of beach, plus wires, scaffolding, platforms and other paraphernalia. Barely 100 metres away there was a rival musical ‘concept’. Now this isn’t the Ninety Mile Beach in ‘down-under’ Oz. This is the stretch between the Tower and Fond Għadir, where even one band is one too many. I didn’t like what I saw or heard, and this was four days before the festival supposedly started. It was 5 pm and already the music was too loud – promenade or not. By Thursday it was unbearable. And by Saturday, even double-glazing had proved useless. Needless to say, it went on until the early hours of the morning – 2am or later.

I’m not alone in thinking it a disgrace. The Sliema council should quit congratulating itself. There’s dirt enough already without having to add to the problem. If you must have a festival, provide adequate litter bins, get these people to clean up their mess or engage professional contractors to do it – and supervise the process from start to finish.

As for the noise, I think here of the elderly, the very private residents (who never disturb anyone), the sick and the dying – all too weak or too timid to do anything. Then I think of the decent and sophisticated tourist who comes to Malta (wooed by the official Visit Malta website) expecting to be charmed and finding only rubbish and the indescribably naff.

I despair. But I think I write for most people when I say that we object to a mass takeover of Sliema and St Julian’s by noise, litter and anti-social behaviour. This is not party-pooping. It is standing up for civilised values in what should be the epitome of civilisation – a planned urban environment. Malta, however, allows a free-for-all in matters of planning and anti-social behaviour. Paradoxically, it is a society that then guards jealously its ‘Christian values’.

Equally worrying is the feeling that you can’t do anything about these inroads; that you can’t even shut out the world from your bedroom, let alone invoke the law, the police or the council to protect you.

michelaspiteri@gmail.com