I write in support of Michael Sammut’s letter (August 8) regarding the building development in St Helen Street, Sliema. It is, of course, correct to state that the area is, in fact, a tourist zone but not designated as one to which the so-called moratorium applies, when the nerve-racking activity of the developers stops temporarily. It is common knowledge what the law is sometimes referred to and this could be a case in point.

Moreover, the dumbing-down of the ordinary citizen has become an everyday occurrence in our lives and we are supposed to put up and shut up. A development permit in one of the narrowest residential streets in Sliema for eight flats, two penthouses, two pools and 47 garages suggests urban planning bordering on the apocalyptic.

Nevertheless, the tourist is not the only god we bow to. The other dimension is that of those who are here to stay. Tourists will simply not come back nor recommend a country fast turning into a constructionsite inferno.

For the tourist industry it is, arguably, the equivalent of pressing the slow-motion, selfdestruct button.

The longer-term implications of this catastrophic and irreversible disregard for the aesthetic, infrastructure apart, concern the rights and well-being of the individual without clout, who only comes into focus at election time.

The (genuine) permanent residents find themselves in the unenviable situation where, far from the tranquillity of Żonqor Point, the area in which they live has been disastrously transformed. The effects of noise-pollution on mental health? Close your windows , is the reply.

Concern about a century-old rubble dividing wall?

The developer informs us he has a right to pull it down. Veritably, an uncivilised level of barbarism.

It is, admittedly a David and Goliath situation but one unfolding perversely with the giant developers crushing the underdogs with their stones.