After this newspaper carried a news item on the poor state of Bontadini Street in Birkirkara and the ineffective manner in which potholes were patched (January 10), there was a repeat on March 24.

When safety measures were raised with the local council, its stand was that it was “as eager to solve it as anyone”. Yet, the worker doing the patching-up job last month again had the vehicle parked carelessly, no cones and no ‘Men at work’ sign.

The nonsensical manner of patching up the potholes can be clearly seen. Ready-made tarmac is simply poured into the hundreds of holes and then sluggishly levelled with a shovel. A bag of tarmac costs almost €6 and the public would surely like to know how much money is spent to buy the bags that practically do not serve the purpose as they are not used effectively.

The end result? The ‘repairs’ last less than a week.

Commuters and residents have been complaining about the precarious state of Bontadini Street for many years.

Neil Spiteri, the local council’s executive secretary, has for ages been stressing that this type of patching up is an extremely temporary measure.

The local council said it would cost close to €2 million to repair the road adequately and, obviously, such a sum is way out of their reach. It said it had been chasing Transport Malta to find a solution.

When I had complained about the matter, Transport Malta CEO James Piscopo had said in an e-mail he was willing to sit round a table with the council to see what can be done. In the meantime, we taxpayers continue to damage our cars.

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