A citizens’ initiative has been launched to pressure the Gozo Ministry to conclude works on a road which has languished uncompleted for years.

Through an online petition, a group of private citizens are complaining that the state of the road is unacceptable and that the ministry should intervene without further delay to fix the short stretch of San Lawrenz’s main road.

Works on the resurfacing of St Lawrence Street started some three years ago when new services and manholes were put in place and a sub-base of tarmac laid.

However, the final phase – a second layer of asphalt completing the 400-metre road – was never done even though the road leads to the Azure Window and Dwejra, one of Gozo’s main tourist attractions.

“We really cannot understand what is going on and why there has been all this procrastination by the Gozo ministry. This doesn’t make sense,” a resident of St Lawrence Street said.

The road is in a worse state than before

“The road is in a worse state than before as some 45 manholes have been left protruding and motorists are zig-zagging all the time to avoid damaging their cars. This has led to many accidents or near misses,” another resident said.

No reasons were given by the Gozo Ministry as to why the works have not been completed.

Parliamentary questions on the state of this road by PN Shadow Minister Chris Said always generated a stock reply: “Works on the completion of this road will be carried in the near future,” Gozo Minister Anton Refalo replied to some 10 parliamentary questions on the subject.

San Lawrenz mayor Noel Formosa told the Times of Malta the council has been putting pressure for a solution for a long time.

“We were always promised that works will be carried out soon… but we have been waiting three years,” Mr Formosa said.

Some of those signing the petition also left comments which describe the poor state of affairs.

“The road is simply a disgrace”, according to Ian Pickering while Brian Borg said that the road has become very dangerous “as cars drive from one side to another to avoid the covers [of manholes] which are some one and a half inches higher than the road level”.

Claire Hili preferred to put in a light-hearted comment: “Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to have Queen Elizabeth II visit our village.”

Many roadworks across Malta were completed last year prior to the Queen’s short visit for the Commonwealth summit.

The petition can be found on: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/unacceptable-state-of-repair-saint-lawrence